torn between the knowledge & the need

graffiti – foto by smith

the artist who was supposed to deliver our pre-paid clay sculpture wednesday night rang our buzzer at 8 friday morning – without the sculpture. his car wouldn’t start, and the sculpture has since been damaged. but he salvaged part of it in a new piece and will give us that sunday at the poetry reading. i wasn’t surprised to see him – i felt all along he would show up eventually. there is an honesty about him in spite of his hustler ways. he sang some of his songs and talked of the three of us getting an art show or musical event or whatnot.

this poem is from 2003, one of the poems which helped me catch Lady’s attention, and the second of three poems included in this year’s Cleveland Poetry Scenes – A Panorama and Anthology:

Dear Occupants, Accidents and Occidentals

Just yesterday it was yesterday
Now it’s already today

Confuse not mercy with weakness
Confuse weakness not with an upset liver
And confuse not an upset liver with love
It is the shape of the silence
Which defines the sound
Like winter rubbing against summer
Each refines the other

Only certain curtains can be drawn
The rest must be endured
The souring sermons
The centered self serving
The lion den Christians in Coliseum stands
Twixt ape and angel wandering
Torn between the knowledge
And the need

Do I worship the moon or sun
Or yet the blooded one?
I bloat and smell
Decay in age
The focus runs

political graffiti – foto by smith