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8.07.10

Fidel Castro, without a cigar-in-mouth,

just made his first official government

appearance in four years, & I think,

Is this an unusual diss? Meanwhile

I'm thinking of new poems, new ideas

like Polafreuds. Retain the retina's fondle,

fiddle fiddling on the radio, light blinds

the devil as he went down to Georgia,

but he plays a serious role in job figures

being a part of the grim economic picture.

I see featured faces: "Barefoot & Pregnant."

Retin A for Retina. There is a mean-looking

little baby in an ad staring through my monitor

as if to say, "I can't believe you don't have life

insurance." This world, full of mystery,

gas-shush-ness, plaque pineapples & squirmy

Icelandic shelter-like off-loading archaic glasses

for iced days makes me feel legally stylistic

yet weathered. Physical populations on faces

here in this town. Illusions do not have to be

illusions if you do not want them to be,

so here I am, beyond all doubt, hoping to sing

but not hoping to be heard. In a cafe at night,

shadows flip & flop, like foretelling the arrival

of strangers, incomprehensible amidst the noir.