City Zen (poem)

Here is a poem from “Spit in a Flower Pot” if you must.

City Zen

at the crossing
an unrecorded violence
suspends the loneliness
of waiting for red
to go green

drum heat and conga cries
shattered hat rooftops
over nightshifters navigating
kitchens by refrigerator bulb




it is evening
out in the bottletop garden
the air is heaving chemical fog
commingling the perfume
of uncertain lovers

gunshots of the proper
commerce cascading waitresses
home to curtains of light
boxed by windows clinging
a common wall

until the drowning


Remember that the scribe will be doing readings from "Vedette or Conversations with the Flamenco Shadows" to the accompaniment of guitarist Omar Torrez during a series of appearances in New York, May 15 through 21.

We’ll play the The Wine Room of Forest Hills May 16 at 7:30. The address is 90-69 69 Ave. The phone number is (718) 520-1777. A second “public” affair may or may not come to pass.

highwayscribery recommends you sample this interview with Omar Torres on KPFK radio’s “Global Village” segment. Scroll down a bit for the link. Just above the orange “La Danza” album cover. Maybe your computer can play it.

The painting is entitled, "Early New York Evening" and was done by Jane Freilicher in the early '50s.

And finally, the scribe was asked to weigh-in (or guest blog) on the health care crisis in the United States by Shaun Mullen at Kiko's House. He entitled it, "Humanizing the System." The entries in his roundup are diverse and insightful.