Psychedelic Dream

Australopithicus,

deviance and cream.

Melted cows

and candles.

Psychedelic dream.

Cantaloupes,

derivatives,

and mop-squeeze soup.

Fractions,

watermelons,

native Guadeloupe.

Type a letter,

calculator,

razor-blade salad,

even though

the sound of it

is really quite pallid.

Poppy, lily,

really silly,

you can count on me.

I’m a little

abacus,

five-forty-three.

Sun tans,

moon tans,

hieroglyphic desk,

paragraphs

and bedspreads,

undertaker’s mask.

Tree tunnels,

oil funnels,

TV show reprieve.

Driver your car

tomorrow,

it’ll never leave.

Kangaroos,

Waterloo,

barrel staves and tires.

Curtain rods

and hotrods,

London Bridge and fires.

Mouse traps

and sand traps,

mahogany and spice,

nothingness

and lamp shades,

sprocket springs and ice.

Nationalism,

pentaprism,

magazines and knees.

Can you beat it,

throw or eat it,

cholesterol and trees.

Farmer’s fields,

chesterfields,

awnings and doubt,

calliopes

and Frisbees,

happiness and gout.

Erasers

and yes-sirs,

carpet, lint, and dust.

Wagon wheels,

orange peels,

California-bust.

Segregation,

modulation,

space ships and crime.

See you later,

wallpaper,

chicken heads and time.

Stay afloat,

jet boats,

shampoo and tax,

Chattanooga,

big beluga,

wail away and tracks.

Surgeons

and injuns,

unions to back us.

Holy water,

hell is hotter,

pimples and fracas.

Heaven knows,

dominoes,

billboards and spoons.

Jupiter

and Tarzen,

Wedding rings and moons.

Greedy gannets,

pomegranates,

mussels, grit and shale.

Cheshire cats

and top hats,

orthodontists’ mail.

Hand stands,

fruit stands,

cotton candy woods.

Tall blonde,

James Bond,

paper mills and hoods.

Crawly spiders,

hang gliders,

sail planes and blood.

Wooden legs

and icebergs,

scalpels and mud.

Elephants

and doilies,

tripods and shirts.

Eye patches,

cat scratches,

dinosaurs and dirt.

City trolls,

country strolls,

ocean swells and wishes.

Inspectors,

reflectors,

apples stems and fishes.

Missionaries,

dictionaries,

soccer balls and watts.

Sky scrapers,

muckrakers,

waterfalls and thoughts.

Einstein,

beer steins,

drug trips and dreams.

Cathedrals

and moguls,

it isn’t what it seems.

Trumpets

and crumpets,

bells that never chime.

Lumberjacks

and backpacks,

if only it would rhyme.

From Ninety-Seven Poems, but otherwise previously unpublished.