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Code Blue
I. Wiring of the Feet
Raven-perched upon a precipice of pain Overlooking crystal-latticed cityscape human specters Lonesome-pulsed homeward toward nuclear suburbs I threnody-sing of V migratory geese And the peregrine’s downward slope. A lifetime’s could-have-beens intersecting you and me.
Someone touched my shoulder, Come with me, And I followed into the Route 66 Milky Way midnight Solitary driver, expressway-embracing Siren hymns Lullaby-echoing down the Arkansas hills, Cb gibberish-squelched airwaves' white noise 18 wheeler asphalt-arias hissing high C’s Ghost chorused by phantom-diner waitress laughter Coffee-counter hushed by quarter tips' spinning silver, And oblivious to that nightshade music, drove on.
2 A. M. On the horizon a tornado approaches, Motion without motion, molecular heart of matter. A hospital overhead voice codes Lazarus, Room 222 Quail flushed air’s recoiling silent goodbye Oxygen insufflated lungs, electrolyte cellular oceans EKG leads, wired around wrists and ankles Epinephrine small hands injected into veins Defibrillator's brute mule-kick to the chest Pulse-less body convulsed from the bed Gelatinous fish-eyed staring into nothingness Near the nightstand’s green-vase red tulip Exhaling Christmas scents of the Netherlands.
II. The Arrest Called Off
There will be no spring this year, No year this zero season; Only flower Death’s mute dialect Inflected with the cadence of a fading kiss. And all memory, reenactment of sorrow When of our blood spilled on the ground Unless there, where a hyacinth blooms, Green hope becomes sun bound.
Man of all times, places, names, Yours was the primeval pool’s rippled human reflection.
With your face disfigured by cancer surgery I love you With your tracheostomy necklace With your Pseudomonas-green wound With your fear of hemorrhage from the neck Your head, bald from chemotherapy Ulcerated lips, painful mouth, eating through a straw Surrounded by your kindergarten get-well cards
With the terror-ball snowballing in your kidney With your hands uplifted in prayer I love you With your disjointed Alzheimer’s disconnected Fading memory's this-and-that broken bric-a-brac
With your body, prostrate in sacrifice I love you With your burning-brain’s starry astrocytoma Epileptic wrist, limp-posed on your thigh Crohn’s fistula-abscessed buttocks Arms' basilic veins, scarred from drugs Leaky mitral valves, Purkinje plexus arrhythmias Neglected myocardial muscle, deteriorating ventricles
With your tricuspid’s ragged chordae tendineae Aneurysmal aorta's lethal detonation Amniotic silence, belly pregnant with malignant ascites Alien-protein studded liver, dysplastic cervix
With your melanoma's prophetic satellitosis Colon’s neoplastic apple core Larva infested lung, herniated sensibility Laryngeal erosion, tattered esophagus Deadly coalescing breast pearl Pallid child, gagging up gastric Ascaris Lumbricoides Huntington’s erratic choreiform gesticulations Your MS eyes blind turning toward darkness I love you.
Turn out the light.
III. Removal of the Body
Soul: origami-folded fire, angel wing blazing Above the kneeling hearts of mortal love.
Not man as cadaver, nor machine Nor pimp, money, nor organ Nor God, animal, nor less-than-nothing Nor filth, occupation, nor carbohydrates, or fat Nor water, android, food, or ignominy, nor killer Nor enemy, broken spirit, nor lie, nor devil.
Shall I curse in front of the kids? Let you eavesdrop on this soliloquy? Read my love letters, publish my diary? Confess my sins, my mea culpas, tell all…? Denounce life with a smirk? Jar-display my youth in formaldehyde? Speak plainly when you are not plain? Slur my words when you despise drunks?
Take the photo, paint the picture Speak the monologue, act the part Mold the Earth, say the word Spark the soul, write the story Sing the song, dance the dance.
IV. The Burial
Be still, my recombinant heart, be still; Louder drums beat unheard. The cocoon-entombed butterfly Will yet give itself up to the sky, Sphinx moth to the night Galaxy-lost in spiral-litany constellations, The cicada, sequestered in brown muscle Earth Emerges again to sing its dirge, And Phoenix, fire-born of water From its ashes will rise.
Martyr relic, suffered visage Mother fish, Father of the Lake Disciple of waves, reverie warrior Oarsman of winter seas, Zen angler Indelible hope, exponential guilt Carnal acquiescence, sentient fire Intercalated facade, entropic lust Conjoined pendant, lacuna trabeculae Velocity of love, pampiniform open road Phlegmatic eruption, emphysematous laugh Fame trajectory, formula of desire Soul compass, geometry of jealousy Curve of yes, angle of no Fascicular wheat, panoramic muons Exponential guilt, vertebral architecture Bruised sensibility, corrugated cerebellum Transcendent rocket, perpetual saguaro Transfusion of light, scintillating comet River-bank germinal footprints, implanted millennia Fossil god-face, ultra-structure of lost civilizations. Intersection of hunter and hunted
This is the hour of our love.
Shall no one pray for this brother, Sister in time, their Past our Future; Sleepers, deaf to all farewells?
V. Requiem
Children measure our hope, singing in the night; Cantatas, wind-carried through the cherry trees Cleansing us in its river of song.
We grow as the corn grows, Witness to witnesses, perennial resurrection of stone Up from the throats of doves Rising voice of a thousand flutes Verdant tasseled rustling in the wind
Mother Earth sun feathered hair Emerging like green arrows from the martyred soil
Antennae, receiving signals from stars Foretelling of legends yet to be.
I. Wiring of the Feet
A raven sits on a painful edge Looking over a city filled with human ghosts Lonely hearts heading back to suburban homes I sing a mournful song about migratory geese And the falcon's steep descent. The possibilities of our lives intersecting.
Someone touched my shoulder, saying, Come with me, And I followed into the midnight of Route 66 A lonely driver, embraced by the songs of sirens Echoing lullabies down the hills of Arkansas, The static of radio waves filling the air Trucks on the highway making high-pitched sounds Ghostly laughter from a waitress at a diner The coffee counter quiet with coins spinning, And unaware of that dark music, I drove on.
At 2 A.M., a tornado is on the horizon, Movement without movement, the essence of matter. A voice in the hospital calls for Lazarus, Room 222 Quail startled, the air silently recoiling goodbye Oxygen filling lungs, cellular oceans of electrolytes EKG leads wrapped around wrists and ankles Epinephrine injected into small hands The defibrillator's harsh jolt to the chest A lifeless body convulsing from the bed With fish-like eyes staring into emptiness Near a red tulip in a green vase on the nightstand Releasing scents of Christmas from the Netherlands.
II. The Arrest Called Off
There will be no spring this year, No year in this season of nothingness; Only the silent language of Death's flower With the rhythm of a fading kiss. And all memories, reenactments of sorrow When our blood was spilled on the ground Except where a hyacinth blooms, Where green hope reaches for the sun.
Man of all times, places, names, You were the reflection of humanity in the ancient pool.
With your face altered by cancer surgery I love you With your tracheostomy necklace With your green wound from Pseudomonas With your fear of bleeding from the neck Your head, bald from chemotherapy Sore lips, painful mouth, eating with a straw Surrounded by your get-well cards from kindergarten
With the terror of a growing mass in your kidney With your hands raised in prayer I love you With your disconnected Alzheimer's Fading memories scattered like broken pieces.
With your body, lying down in sacrifice I love you With your brain's burning tumor Your limp wrist resting on your thigh Your abscessed buttocks from Crohn's disease Your arms' veins scarred from drugs Your leaky heart valves and arrhythmias Your weakened heart muscle and failing ventricles
With your ragged heart strings The deadly explosion of your aorta The silence of your belly filled with cancer Your liver studded with alien proteins, your cervix abnormal
With your cancer's ominous spread Your colon like a rotten apple core Your lung infested with larvae, your sensitivity herniated Your throat eroded, your esophagus torn Your breast like a deadly pearl A pale child vomiting intestinal worms Your eyes blind from multiple sclerosis I love you.
Turn off the light.
III. Removal of the Body
Soul: folded fire, angel wing shining Above the kneeling hearts of human love.
Not man as a corpse, nor machine Nor pimp, money, nor organ Nor God, animal, nor nothingness Nor dirt, work, nor food, nor shame, nor killer Nor enemy, broken spirit, nor lie, nor devil.
Should I curse in front of the children? Let you listen to this speech? Read my love letters, publish my diary? Confess my sins, my apologies, tell everything…? Reject life with a smirk? Display my youth in formaldehyde? Speak plainly when you are not clear? Slur my words when you look down on drunks?
Take the photo, paint the picture Speak the monologue, act the role Shape the Earth, say the word Ignite the soul, write the story Sing the song, dance the dance.
IV. The Burial
Be still, my heart, be still; Louder drums beat unheard. The butterfly in its cocoon Will eventually rise to the sky, Like a sphinx moth at night Lost in the spiral of stars, The cicada, hidden in the earth Will emerge to sing its lament, And the Phoenix, born of fire and water Will rise from its ashes.
Relic of a martyr, suffering face Mother fish, Father of the Lake Disciple of waves, dream warrior Sailor of winter seas, Zen fisherman Unforgettable hope, overwhelming guilt Physical surrender, conscious fire Layered facade, chaotic desire Joined pendant, empty spaces Speed of love, open road Calm eruption, breathless laughter Path to fame, formula of longing Soul's guide, shape of jealousy Curve of yes, angle of no Wheat's structure, wide view Overwhelming guilt, backbone's design Bruised feelings, twisted brain Transcendent rocket, eternal cactus Light's transfusion, shining comet Footprints by the riverbank, planted for millennia Face of a god in fossils, structure of lost civilizations. Meeting point of hunter and hunted
This is the moment of our love.
Should no one pray for this brother, Sister in time, their Past our Future; Those asleep, deaf to all farewells?
V. Requiem
Children measure our hope, singing at night; Songs carried by the wind through cherry trees Cleansing us in its river of melody.
We grow as corn grows, Witness to witnesses, eternal rebirth of stone From the throats of doves The rising voice of many flutes Green rustling in the wind
Mother Earth with sun-kissed hair Emerging like green arrows from the sacrificed soil
Antennae receiving signals from stars Foretelling legends yet to come.