Four Poems
Tim Wood


on the edge of the Las Colinas Canal


A beer can . . . beer (why ask ­­ ask? ask!) A beer can floats in the dead burning waves ­­ waving? why. ­­ curling drifting from the ­­ out of . . . through? ­­ concrete corridors ­­ petrified! queued . . . ­­ with the ­­ a? ahh. . . ­­ cigarette ­­ rjr? ama... ­­ smoke ­­ smog . . . decay. . . ­­ with the ­­ or . . . in . . . .­­ bodies ­­ thoughtless­­ corpse ­­ poetryless . . . word free ­­ liberate ­­ escape ­­ ƒescape!



This work was created as an installation of chalk and concrete with the words forming one unbroken line along the edge of the canal mentioned in the work's title. The author is exploring several ways to recreate the original affect.

 


shadows of lover, passed on


He eats the day slowly, agonizing to push
each bite down. These meals have lost
all color. He paces through the rooms, cutting
his wide oval around this space, again, again.

He has become the ghost of his lover, a glistening
midnight hole ­­living seance, where a young man's voice,
echoing from crypt walls, agonizes from his throat,
puddling in the surrounding air.

He again places limb in front of limb to rustle
through their rooms, past dusty boots and a pipe
wrench shedding it's long-dry, creek bank skin,
sounding his kidnapped lover's voice,
knowing the silent walls reject him.

 


Its all been written
before somewhere before

under the tree I
ripped off the paper tossed
the ribbon away and didn't understand
at first He said shake it

shake it and white swirls
around inside the little clear globeswirls
around the smiling plastic figure planted
at the center glued down and captured in red
and green molded plastic
set in the middle of the little globe watching
white swirl when I choose
to shake it

white from my cigarette swirls up
the glass and drifts around my cigarette
shakes and white swirls
around me planted in this chair watching
the white swirl
when my cigarette shakes

snow drifts up to the air ceiling
and swirls
around people rushing
from home are planted behind
desks at machines with schedules under
a smoldering light peering down just one eye
squinting as white papers and cigarette smoke swirl
through rooms and around the building shake
a little more as they swirl back drifting
around behind the glass surrounding
them planted here to plant
their wives children husbands lovers relatives friends
under the glass of their houses so those
lovers relatives friends husbands wives will plant
them behind desks at machines with schedules under
the squint of their smoldering eye watching
white swirl beneath the plexi sky
as they coat their children
in red and green clothes to plant
at desks behind machines under schedules so one
burning eye can squint down as the room shakes
a little and whitepaperwhitepollutionwhitedustwhite
snow exhales swirls and drifts up and swirls
back around when someone chooses
to grab the globe and shake





takes a pause from their boredom
to shake decides to watch
the red and green molded
plastic people fade

into the swirl they shake
and drift back
into boredom

again
drift again

back again

 


I Have a Dream...
on visiting the site of the game


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Sunlight and snow
flurry down
through the hole in the stadium roof.

The flurries speckle the uniforms

Troy Aikman and Deion Sanders on the right
Roger Staubach and Drew Pearson on the left

They line up to close the half.

Staubach goes back,
Drew Pearson goes deep

and the ball lofts

glitters
for a moment
in the falling
nature


and then

gently

sails
down
field.


A roar ends the half
the players fade.


Ross Perot, L.B.J. and Sam Houston
Lean towards the glass faces of their skyboxes.

The flurries thicken,
pulse,
thump

Everyone silent


Words
appear on the dome
A single dozen filling the space
A second group
of words
glow
into view
on the falling snow
drifting light

They hang in mid-air
opposing
complementing
the visions on the walls.

The audience joins the work

100,000 voices
create
a dijeridoo buzz
summoning
and
amplifying
each pair of lines
summoning
the sunlight

burst into a spectrum

snow buries the floor
the roof stretches higher

stands and then skyboxes
disappear
in white


voices crescendo
roof bursts open

the dijeridoo roll
of voice
word color

splashes the highways
the sky


it fills my eyes

fills everything

it is glorious


my dream this dream the dream

is glorious