We were stretched out on the esplanade
Fishing poles limp hot dogs
The carp didn’t bite there
So came night came the stars
That bullied the sky so we left
Hitching Highway 1 coons
And possums trailing winds
Majestic along headlight
Beams that skimmed bait
The indolent fish refused
Unquestionably unilateral over the top daredevil
Window washer repels slings
So high almost out of sight
From skyscraper 45th floor
Underwear exposed puffs a Camel
Swings precariously defiant
With a smile slips loose drops
Relaxed with a bubbly he said she’d always wanted
An erudite type not some bloke
With porcupine skin you recognize
Cucumber nose you’d easily mistake
For a tsunami any time the waltz hit
Rodeo Drive made the moment real
Not overexposed the convivial father
Call him paladin unfortunately
Suffered a mild heart attack in
An orange grove outside Riverside
Non issue because life is limpid
Knows elections don’t halt taxes
Wife weaving a dress from satin thread
Bakes cookies for the Brownie troop
On a good day he was certain to knock three times
Stovepipe hot and she would respond
By beating a tin kettle the cat
Texts cousin Sue sweet in Madagascar
Ducting clear of pesky dust mites
Thank god the glass slipper glistens
In the sink we show great stealth
Ascend dozens and dozens of steep
Iron steps inside the capitol dome
Wind way up to where pure
Gold plated ball kisses nascent clouds
Gaze way down the mall where
River and Tower Bridge merge if only
You could stop traffic on a dime now
Arrest distance with nuclear theory
Maybe Vanderbilt or Bach could
Backstage Mata Hari lurks squats
Senator you should do something
Do something before the ice cube
In my martini melts like a man
Stan and Ollie trailed team Chevy Chase three
To nothing in the bottom of the ninth
When it began to drizzle pin pricks
We packed bananas and Pepsi cans
Hightailed out of Frisco on the next
Bus and buzzed into chilly Berkeley
Like a pair of slightly juiced dolphins
We both stomped jovially
Up Shattock toward the Civic Center
To find a Miloz selected someplace
Anyplace remaindered so crazed
At last fruition bubbled to the rim
And that was a photo to be relished while eating
A Po Boy at the Amtrack terminal
Jawdropping buns and jugs sat
No man’s land across from me
Distanced yet here a daisy showed
There a unicorn stunning immense
Glissandos left on the hothouse steps
Along with nine empty milk bottles
I swear Ted sure did cry when they
Took his toy monkey away from him
Easter was early or anyhow it seemed
With so much snow all around
But difficult to catch a flake on your
Tongue to salvage sanity or soul
We absolutely did not want to be discovered curled
Like a couple of snails copulating
At the foot of Mount Ranier given
Beautiful as Aspen is Owens Valley
Some circumstances I would avoid
Outright if possible not patronize
The fashionable politics of bullets
Kids favor these days over the pen
Isolated from good poems perfect
Eliot masterful Gauguin
Messianic howl over the moon
Turned sienna before my eyes
In a symphony the ages descry
Ear muffs ipods cell phones phonograph afoot
We watched Roy Rogers kick up spurs
Hop onto Trigger and head out for
Wonderland so that it would become
Essentially unnecessary to ask why
The chicken steadfastly refused to set
Foot on the road and why it elected
Not to lift its shirt and expose its navel
____
Thomas Piekarski is a former editor of the California State Poetry Quarterly. His poetry and interviews have appeared in Nimrod, Portland Review, Kestrel, Cream City Review, Poetry Salzburg, Boston Poetry Magazine, Gertrude, The Bacon Review, and many others. He has published a travel guide, Best Choices In Northern California, and Time Lines, a book of poems. He lives in Marina, California.
