FLASH

: : great towers reach up violently into sky : : bring planes down : : search and destroy all planes : : spores scream for help : : cows drop from violent sky : : horses too : : FLASH : all mail taken to central location in Kabul : FLASH : white powder spores planted near land-mine recognition : FLASH : gratitude from happy anthrax nation : : buildings house explosives for grateful population : FLASH : US postal delivers to Afghan cave Complex ZIP-CODE 66666 : : : :

: : all great planes in lower sky reaches brought down by vigilante wooden homes in Trenton, New Jersey : : more cows fall from violent sky : : this train has stopped until further notice : : What All Terrorists Need to Know : The Essential Information : : FLASH : : New York City N and R trains deliver well-known smog to eastern Afghanistan with Express A Train cooperation : FLASH : unprecedented movement of adobe Anasazi complex noted in western Iraq : : search and destroy all terrorists : : cliffs and caves expel evil spores : : gratitude of happy anthrax nation : : FLASH : sand turns against anthrax nation in sudden move : FLASH : anthrax caught unawares : : noted deep inhalation of N and R trains : could this be a well-known beginning : :

great towers grapple sky terror : : all towers grounded until further notice : : airborne spores : : kill all infidels : : A, C, E trains in grateful cooperation : : FLASH : sand congeals : Miami Beach vacated : : FLASH : all white-powder Boca Raton future mail containing Powder of Eternal Life : FLASH : sponges revolt from ocean bottom : FLASH : FLASH : FLASH : :

—Alan Sondheim

 

my kind of town
watched the yanks
take 3 from behind
in the world series

no surprises here
ny is a come from
behind kind of town

how else could it be—
the world, they say
being built on a tilt
with every loose marble
rolling right down
the midway of broadway
& greenwich village
& into the belly of
the big apple

take heart old gotham
familiar ghosts dance
across your stage

you do your can can
your ass & naked heart
waving to the world

you global flasher
of the soul

thank god
the statue of liberty

wears no veil

—normal

In the Desert

Do not speak
Of anything
That can’t be seen
Cannot be touched

Well suspended
Are the rules
Once you travel
Far enough

—Bernard Muller

October

How would I really grow old?
Grow a beard, wrinkles
under my bright blue eyes
and a week-long stubble
across my sad chin
of yonder years
How would I really grow old
as the skies here in Calcutta
ridicule my envy
my rage impotent
like the clouds here in Calcutta
my beloved, that don’t burst
and smear a lot of sorrows
along the city highways
How would I really grow old
among my rains and my sunshine
and my bleak winter cold?

—Prasenjit Maiti