ROCKPILE on the road / 2

David Meltzer


Brother

Brother died there was no choice 
Brother died in bed a radio near his head 
        repeating rosary news of a word world 
        abbreviated fragments casualties stocks 
        weather reports traffic jams sports equations 
Died without thought of power 
Died with a name nobody knew but we who buried it 
Brother died devoured 
        alarming what was left of his body 
        bones shattered by plague and abundance 
        tongue and nerves retracted 
        shrunk by the touch of all of it 
        too painful 
        unmythic death 
        no martyr brother died for no known cause 
        slowly died before us 
        we don't know why 
Brother came home that summer stunned by insight so right 
        it stopped him 
        drew blood from his veins 
        reduced him to a gnome bent over in silence 
        on the bed like a pea pod we let clean sheets 
        fall gently on his body not to break anything 
        it was that bad 
        shades drawn then doubledrawn always night 
        the radio repeating news twenty-four hours a day 
        except Sunday 
        when prophecy redemption damnation choirs 
        made brother suffocate 
        scream into rubberfoam-filled pillows 
        his mouth tore at like a dog 
Brother died there was no choice 
Brother returned from war with secrets he never told 
        everyone asking how did it feel 
        how many did you kill 
        did you see their faces 
        he never told them anything 
        but asked about wheat and rock and roll 
        and stopped eating meat such a mystery 
        upon his face it froze there 
        nights the garden roared open 
        and lovers ran off in panic 
        mortar shells lit freeways 
        he wouldn't eat shellfish they were scavengers 
        insides filled with curls and ribbons of poison 
Brother bought a Bible which led him to Market Street to preach
        apocalypse to nobody 
        passing around him like a lighthouse 
        everyone going elsewhere 
        while junkies and crazies watched brother preach 
        reaching for light beyond ruin 
Brother at full moon buried the Bible 
        wrapped in a flag of yesterday's newspaper 
Brother awoke to shave his head eyebrows pubic hairs 
Brother sat naked in the backyard for days 
        until hair sprouts like occult runes 
        reappeared upon his gaunt body 
Brother marched with others into a city 
        and saw himself later on TV 
        in a cell a self-announced Angel 
        pulled off his pants 
        they had to stuff a sock in his mouth 
        everyone took turns 
Brother lost count 
        basic numbers erased at the Bank 
        he couldn't remember his Social Security number 
        and when the phone was put before him like a blueplate
                special 
        he blanked-out his home number 
        they didn't know what to say to him 
        not even the Bank president yelling in his ear 
        could break the silence of vanishing numbers 
        racing down the drain even his address then his name 
        stammering letters and numbers
        memory emptying out 
        he made sounds they turned away from 
        speed-popping attendants clanked a gurney into the Bank 
        nobody blinked as they strapped brother down 
        four TV cameras memorized it 
Brother the lamb repaired 
        returned to us in a wheelchair 
        a hunger to build a 10 x 10 shed in the backyard 
        paint murals on the walls 
        read through a stack of paperbacks 
        bought from a New Age bookshop 
        heal and return to life 
        all systems cleansed complete 
        blank page 
        ready and able 
        Selah Selah 
Brother died we know not why there was no choice 
Brother died in bed a radio near his head 
        repeating rosary news of a word world 
        twenty-four hours a day 
        abbreviated fragments casualties stockmarket 
        weather report traffic jams body count sports 
        equations child mutilation decapitation 
        husband tears wife apart 
        wife rips out his tongue 
        nuns raped dogs ratpoisoned 
        suicide club crashes rented plane into Mt. Rushmore 
        Church mugs State 
        Buddha incorporates 
        it's all Real Estate 
        electricity turns hair white 
        castrates twenty-two teenage boys 
        buries their pale bodies in backyard lime pit 
        birth rate exploding expanding universe 
black blood drunk neat with gin back in Rhodesia 
white blood used for sign paint 
Arabs eat flies in endless marketplace of empty bowls
        Chinese on the march 20 million strong 
        ultimate weapon carried along the Great Wall's spine 
        multinational empires sneak away to Shangri-La 
        the Pentagon's lowered into underground caves 
        turned sideways into atomic Nautilus manned by Capt. Nemo 
        twenty-four hours a day 
        repeating rosary news of the world 
        near his head in bed brother died 
Brother died we knew he would there was no choice 
Brother in his shed tracked words to roots 
        no difference between barbarian or wizard 
        one clan scales the pyramid of another 
        plants a flag into the King's cracked skull 
Brother went with tape recorder to streetcorners 
        asking questions nobody answered 
        what difference does it make 
        nobody stands a chance they said 
        Nazi or Maccabee 
        none less noble than the other 
Brother tiring 
Brother wore down 
Brother came home that summer stunned by insight so right 
        it stopped him 
        drew blood from his veins 
        bent-over gnome in the bed 
        peapod 
        we let clean sheets gently fall on his body 
        not to break anything 
        the pain that bad 
        burned from within 
        shades doubledrawn 
        always night 
        the radio on 
        twenty-four hours 
        brother remained silent 
        eyes open 
        until they shut
        sheets soaked with pallet of body's collapse 
        died there was no choice we know not why 
        nobody on heaven on earth to remember brother 
        everyone takes turns forgetting 
        numbers and letters 
        forgetting 
        faces and shapes 
        twenty-four hours a day 
       I cannot forget

Brother died
there was no choice.

David Meltzer performs Brother
at the Aqus Café, Petaluma, CA.

ROCKPILE on the road (cont'd)

 
 
 
 
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