Songs (cont.)

5

The secret now, that I only discovered while talking
(but no one can ever call it as such
to bee, is not of the drink that this large, stomping poet
slams against the corner of the kitchen table,
(the stew brewing I toss the mess all in it
and while it goes I discovered then
of the changes in rhythm, where some sap on the internet
claimed he had none, the pacing here
from his breath, the lines, the sd syllables
arises from yrs of experience and having had read that poem
many times over
(the tomatoes now falling over themselves
W/ a tums I write this in my own stench
but alas, maybe I had discovered, maybe not so much a secret
as it is the pepper in my stomach
             
                                           I do most of my reading and
                                           composition-by-can
                                           in my favorite place


6

My friend of whom I am most proud
went ahead as a passenger to one of the Forts, there
where they make you sign a document
that proves your allegiance to your country
as well, makes you into a man because, certainly,
you were not one before,                            
       couldn't've

There in the lobby were many books of military history that no one must've picked up
and actually read! for godsakes, and a young man, younger than my friend and I,
who was quite nervous, you see, eager though, electrifying perhaps in his levels,
        This is hard to know

and that he did not know how to survive, the first rule: don't drink the sea water,
but this
            he did not even know!   That he swore, even, that the tropical waters of Puerto Rico
and elsewhere in the Virgin Islands, the archipelago, were safe to drink from

sure,
be all you can be,
but, gee

my friend he wanted to be in Intelligence
but they wanted him to start off in infantry,
as it was serving your country    either way
that it was being a patriot,
that it was, much like here in the inside world,
(that battle that is outside
you would work your way up the ranks

but it didn't take, him, no, my friend, of whom I am most proud
it took another recruiter, it took
someone from Intelligence
(that they say, they brought in,
now, this man said
if my friend wanted to get
into diplomacy
that this was the
  way                    
                   this later he found out, wasn't true, from a diplomat friend of the family
                                  this he had gotten sick of their accusations, this place, a Fort
                                  where the linoleum had gotten suddenly rough, the going; tough

                                  as nails as the heads of these men
                                  as pristine as the pages of history
                                  as sickening as the actions in articles
                                  he got the hell out of there, and we had discussed this later on,
                                  w/ beb, on 11th & Wash,  over pho


7


I always picture him in a diadem,
I, golden

my mother, always focused on my vigor
that I eat quickly while the food was hot,
that I be awake at all times even during slumber
so as not to miss one iota of experience that could
take me out of here, this place
somehow these experiences they get built up
almost as calcium

I was raised on the measure of a glass
my father, he, just about near insane at points, in the old warm-white kitchen
back on A & E. Louden, stuffed several tomatoes in a blender and made me drink
and it had this sanguine, bubbly texture that made me gag
it was nothing like V8, man,
nothing like it

still I made the attempt and promptly vomited into the sink,
almost proud, like "see, this is what we both should've known would happen
and that I, even as a small child, was brave enough to vomit just to teach you a lesson
                                                        brave enough to eat it down