Muffin

Reconnected, rebooked to arrive

A jog & a blink

Run from terminal to treatable

1 ½ hour to “Love Shack”

In Reading

Home of Reading Railroad?

A resort during the Revolutionary War 

Free Time. Liberty Bell

Scrapple? 

 

Some kind of Oriental frijoles and carrot juice

Goat cheese on English muffin

 

She chews gum

Pumps throttle

White sari, rose-colored glasses and adhesive third eye

Ganesh Baba breathes down her neck

The spine must be straight or the head will wobble  

                                               

      Prescription:

Vitamins

Vegetables, no beef or chicken

            Yoga

 

Pansies bloom too fast in Spring rain

Bed of Iris

Running three hours late...

 

In Rochester

Drum circle orientalists read cards:

 

            “I am the center of the universe

                        Washed in a wave of bliss

                        Seeking puja

                        Under guidance of Lord Ganesh..  .

           

Rush to meet lawyer and photographer friend

at sweaty breakfast joint

Gulp down food then take garden tour

Fallen honeysuckle blossoms

Stone benches carved with Shakespearean epigrams

Hot house neoregelia in passionate heat

We have a display of public affection

But before the poetry reading begins:

 

“My Dear, please don’t eat the muffin. You will ruin your appetite.

Please honey, don’t slam the door.  Why are you running to the bathroom

all the time?  Don’t you love me?  It looks like bran but it’s loaded

with sugar.  Please don’t throw the muffin on the floor, honey. We can have it

later for dessert.”

 

Then, conflicted peacocks court on the tin roof 

Honk!

Honk!

Da, Datta, Damyatta, Davayadam, Hail!

 

May 23–June 11, 2001

Ekleksographia #1

January  2009

Poems

Michael Rothenberg

Michael Rothenberg is a poet, songwriter, and editor of Big Bridge magazine online at www.bigbridge.org. His poetry books include Man/Woman, a collaboration with Joanne Kyger, Favorite Songs, The Paris Journals, Monk Daddy,  and Unhurried Vision. His poems have been published widely in small press publications. His novel Punk Rockwell was published by Tropical Press. Rothenberg's 2005 CD collaboration with singer Elya Finn, was praised by poet David Meltzer as "fabulous-all [the] songs sound like Weimar Lenya & postwar Nico, lushly affirmative at the same time being edged w/ cosmic weltschmertz. An immensely tasty production." He is also editor for the Penguin Poet series, which includes selected works of Philip Whalen, Joanne Kyger, David Meltzer and Ed Dorn. He has recently completed the Collected Poems of Philip Whalen for Wesleyan University Press.