sudden poems from wandering SW Asia anonymously – usually by train, often accompanied by a Lomo photo
Mostly so i can answer Drs when they ask if significant exposure to heavy metals. Not more than others except for Geneva steel labourers. Never worked in an aluminum smelter assuming aluminum is smelted and changing pronunciation in my head, proudly on the fly.
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from Towns and Trains, Sudden poems 2016-2018
Sanambin road goes to the airport
Occasionally closed for a motorcade of minor relations of Royals Reviewing, visiting Buddhas, adorned with black-clad citizens, black ribbons to indicate respect and match endless bunting and banners of visage — with camera, saxophone, with monkey cheek, with ribbons, bespectacled always
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from Towns and Trains, Sudden poems 2016-2018
The obvious anonymity allows one to wander, unhindered by conversations about homes, jobs and places to go
Nowhere to be but here
Markets of fruits, meats with flies and disposable clothes
Hospitals, shops of pots and pans and endless choices for scooter repairs, stationary by train station Sidewalk stands of noodles, meat on sticks which unify the world, tuk-tuks, rickshaw bikes who don’t want to go far, bank machines and carbon sheet receipts, taxis never seem to know any one of my three destinations: inn, hospital, clinic
Repeat
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from Towns and Trains, Sudden poems 2016-2018
To write a letter
Directed towards a conductor
Sequestered awaiting diagnosis
In a hi-fi bungalow
His son flies so close
To the Borealis
The Inuit might call him
Aurora in another name
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from Towns and Trains, Sudden poems 2016-2018
Beds are cantilevered
Crisped sheets whisked
Into place at our whim
The attendant nods
I burn a small lamp
Glints on the stainless trim
A gift from my brother
The Bangkok diplomat
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from Towns and Trains, Sudden poems 2016-2018
Saffron robes
And a suitcase full
Of cigarettes
Eating past dark
We trade a blue-spotted orange
For bag of salted cashews
In a train compartment
Bound for a jaunty frontier
The garland of marigolds for him
A dried purple bloom
Intertwined within
my battered straw hat
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from Towns and Trains, Sudden poems 2016-2018
Tea in tiny cups
Hardwood porch, Chiang Mai 4 AM
Shivers with thunders and rain
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from Towns and Trains, Sudden poems 2016-2018
Neural pathways exploding
With potential energy
Cataclysm yet to happen
Described by chemistry
Its clear my brain
Wasnt quite connected
Sending misfires
To my legs and ankles
False signals in the rain
Is the heart the centre
Or is it the belly
Populated with a congress of organisms
Manufacturing serotonin
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from Towns and Trains, Sudden poems 2016-2018
From the tribes to Pistol-lock
Safety switched to off
Rails change gauges
Locomotive rusts behind a fence
The Oiler crouches low
With cartridges on hand
Washes dingy mangoes
Water tank strapped low
By silver wheels
3 coins for admittance
Or 17 with dry powder
Ignition proves difficult
With the absence of a fuse
Get your basket to the platform
Before the diesel glows
The wheels stutter, shovels put away
Replaced by urgency
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from Towns and Trains, Sudden poems 2016-2018
Inventory:
Folding tray with snacks: dried mangoes, cashews, chewing gum, this very notebook, cork covered sardine can camera with expired 35mm Fujifilm, headphones, diazepam, food delivered by an unhappy hostess, strange spicy clams, instant cup rice and a sort of curry sauce.
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from Towns and Trains, Sudden poems 2016-2018