For a reasonable sum,
I can have a star named after me,
and get a certificate suitable
for framing declaring it so.
I’d like to buy a group of stars
in relatively close proximity
each to the others, and rather
than naming each after me,
I’d name the lot with one name,
my personal constellation,
perhaps Buddhist, the sky could
use a Bodhisattva of Absurdity.
But with my luck, the only thing
my stars would frame would be
a sea slug or a millipede and
I’ll pass on that for eternity.
Religion, he said, is inherently illogical
and the older the religion, the more illogical
it becomes, accreting absurdity over time.
A corollary of this proposition is that
the more organized a religion claims to be,
the more its spirituality is buried under
rules and regulations which only illustrate
the principal proposition set forth above.
Humans create religion not to explain
the unexplainable but to justify ignorance
and their unwillingness to search and risk
finding answers that conflict with their
desired view of life and decomposition.
But, he concluded, do not for a second believe
that atheists have it right, for theirs
is a religion of utter illogic and rigidity
certain of the nonexistence of an idea that they
believe they can demonstrate, but have not,
and they will be damned if they will stop trying.
On the map
are neatly etched lines
drawn by a fine stylus
in a skilled hand
separating blue from yellow.
This soil is cinnamon
there tending to mahogany
no line, only a post
here, one there
and a gun emplacement
to deter those
who cannot see
a line writ on water.
In the wind the dust
dances across and back
dodging the post
or caressing it
it tastes the rain
which falls
both here and there.
High above
the buzzard
watches the lizard
scurry through
the shadow of the sign
seeing neither
blue nor yellow.
Halt, you cry
are you
of this land
or that?
I am of neither
I am the ocher
of the land
from which I rose
into which I will recede
I am the mote
of dust
that lodges
in the corner
of your eye
and in the corner
of his
until neither
can see
the line
that is not.
In order to be considered, the request must be submitted on the proper form with duplicate originals. If you lack sufficient copies of the form, you may request additional originals by submitting a request form in duplicate originals. Copies of the former not acceptable, whether or not completed at the time of copying. Additional copies of these instructions are available upon submission of the required request form. It need only be submitted in the singular.
Consider, for a moment
he said
the absurdity of it all
a guy with brains enough
to shape universes
who can flick on stars
with a thought
faster than you or I
can throw a switch who,
worst case
gives a lizard a kick in the ass
and ends up with man
that a guy
with this kind of power
is going to write his story down
on a bunch
of tablets
or have an old coot
wander the desert endlessly
pen and parchment in hand
taking dictation
and then leave the scrolls
scattered in caves
it makes no freakin’ sense.
If it was me
he said
standing on a hill
watching some scrub pine
slowly burn onward
no ashes, no embers
just keeps on burning
and if I heard a voice
giving me orders
when I couldn’t see anyone
to go and slap
some soldier
upside the head
or march into a river hoping
to find the stones
followed by miles
of lemmings lined up
behind me
not this kid
me, I’d look for a screen
and some short professor
from somewhere
in Kansas.
Do you buy for a minute
he said
that he would wander
sucking sand from his navel
and getting called
to haul his ass up a mountain
for a crisis meeting
and then have
to schlep tablets down the hill
eating hardtack
and pretending to like it
then telling his wife
he knew where he was
he wasn’t lost
so what if it was forty years
Miriam was
really going to buy that
and Aaron
had to be
thrilled
dragging the damn ark
like a bloody albatross
then looking down
into the valley
he’s gonna say
okay, that’s it
go on without me
I just got word
I gotta croak here
but keep a kind thought,
fat chance of that ever happening.
Here in Haikutown
verisimilitude can
be found in line two.
But over in Tankaville
it can have three addresses.
an old writer and his words 