ROCKPILE on the road / 4

David Meltzer


COLD

1

Heat of freeze
glare of
her blue eyes
ice picks

2

Rimbaud was heat
despite
icy blue eyes

3

Bowers of icicles
hung from each word

Shards of ice
slice transparent wounds
exposed flesh

4

She never was anything less than
camera ready

5

To the end spoke in a little girl’s
high pitched sing song voice
insouciant but insistent

6

All clothing
form fitting
absolutely crisp
neatly ironed
regalia to support
orange pancaked fratz
& terminally bleached hair

7

Iron freeze, her
razorblade spine

8

How she multiplies
into a cardealer spread
of faces

9

Who knew or knows
why or when she stopped
playing the Wurlitzer harp
exiled in the Brooklyn garage
the Steinway baby grand
in the living room she
like an anorexic picked at
but no longer played

10

her hot boney flanks
ass side against my
kid plump heat

11

bear the wrist scars
of Rockville Center

12

with all her extravagant
boxes of Charms
chewing gum
furs & musk
a moviestar mom
visiting me in
camp death watch

13

flat glamor of suburbs
diningroom wall mirrored
rec room basement w/ faux wood
paneling, well stocked bar
TV, new furniture in living room
protected by plastic rubbers

14

Nailpolish deep red
Plymouth convertible
her ice blue eyes
behind the wheel

15

Dry ice demos
inexplicable
its damage
its immense heat

16

How blue eyes
signify ice
& dark eyes
the schmaltz

17

Her Auschwitz body
w/ blue eyes & blonde
hair in Brooklyn shtetl

18

Torment
torn between
& in between
dark heat
& cold doubt

19

An L.A. harpist prodigy
chunky dimpled
in publicity photos
rejected her body
shrunk it into survivor
pancake makeup
skeleton serving food
Jewish aunts & uncles
cousins & brothers of
her husband’s clan
which he accepted
as he repudiated

20

she had a plan
a way out & back
into harp-filled path
of Looney Tunes
sincere rapture
& class elevator ascension

she had a plan
deeply unknown
until the time
it opened its
lotus
to focus
on escape

21

we kids don’t know
her mystery
remains & retains its
disinterest

22

tav, end
of alpeh bayt
tav, end of
yod, tav
starts it all
over again in
yod seed loop

23

Nan & I
talk of numb
long distance
wires of
she says
I say
we all say
Pops was hot
Mom cold

24

back to the chill ice of her eyes

ROCKPILE on the road (cont'd)

 
 
 
 
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