Hear that gust of wind?
Hear the humidity lift?
Let the senses blend into the sense of this place, and no other.

The words are black, the screen is blue.
Leonard Cohen reminds us that the Torah
was written in black fire upon white fire,
so, why not write it all down on the machine.
Easy enough if you think you might be God.
And who doesn’t, once in a while.

The home team is victorious once again,
and people do feel impervious, all powerful.
That’s why the police await in riot gear at every street corner.
They’ve closed all the bars at eleven.
What’s this, an outsider wonders, can’t you guys take it if you win?
That’s just the problem, we expect too much of it.
We want to take control, and wreak havoc on the city,
screaming, burning all night,
smashing the windows and having it all.

The roads are sealed off, it feels as if the war has just begun,
not simply ended.
After all, it was just a game, right?
Perhaps people are holding back the urge to fight for real.

There is this upheaval all over the world.
It is calm right here but all around burn the flames of unrest.
Or else here the greatest melee is among the calls of birds so
far away all in the hills might be silence.

We hide in the woods, we choose our battles.
Is the world at bay or all alive right here?
There are too many questions here, I know,
but I do not feel right in denying them.

Each way of writing jumps to another,
like the fleeing songs of the mockingbird,
like to swoops of the pair of pileated woodpeckers,
courting among the trees.

But there are reasons to expect more:
each day here starts with the loom of gray,
fog drifting in through the windows and then inside our minds.
And the sun usually comes out, the day becomes both lazy and awake,
and the sky behind all occlusion does remain blue.
Is this enough, or is it an escape?

I am held in by that song, I want to know what it means.
But I’ll try to know enough not to image I will ever know—
let the amazement come first, let it drown out
the shock of the world.
 

puppupchoowee puppupchoowee
chhk chhk chhk
bip bip bip bip
whhy whhy whhy whhy
tk tk tk tk
peppeep pepeeep
whhhhhhrrrrrrhhhhrrr
chewewewe
piyup piyup piyup
pip pip pip pip pip
heerup heerup
fzzp fzzp fzzp
heeyo heeyo heeyo
hk hk hk hk
kreeeey kreeeey
gimme dat gimme dat
take it all in, take it all in
hhhhhhhhhhhhhh, tell me, tell me.
Unhh! Unhh! Unhhh!
No NO No No
Pleeeeeeeease, if not if, if not if
don’t cry my baby, don’t cry my baby
you you you you
up up up up up
and no more, and no more, and no more
take your time, take your time, take your time,
here and here, up and away, up and away, up and away.
higher, higher, higher, higher,
heh, heh heh heh
cheep cheep cheep
sleep sleep sleep.
if you can, if you can, if you can
take more, take more, take more
write it all down, write it all down,
if you dare, if you dare,
if if if if if if if if
trip trip trip trip trip if not if,
try, try, try, try, wooden, wooden, would you?

All we have are words
all we hear are sounds.
It is possible they have nothing to do with each other at all.  [14]