Karl Bachmann


GALACTIC PUNK W/ A PISTOL ARM 
 
“My colleagues & I wanted to know  
The TRUTH
(Of this world) the here & now & is. 
Be it a truth known in the body, or  
Mind or in some spiritual pavilion.” 
 
I wait for no one. - Have you typed   
Your letters accurately Clerk? That  
Is who you are (among other things 
Not simply what  
You’ve done). But to explain it all…
 
Would be too much! & no one has  
Time to waste on such dissertations. 
This poem—was written in Harbin 
China (under the guidance of THE  
 
Russian Church)! There’s a golden 
River that subsumes all delusion… 
I laze in emerald nodes & byways 
“But tell us the truth, was it you?” 



[I’ll be your ally…] 
 
I’ll be your ally M. Eluard as 
a sun wanders thru 
the sea. We could  
ask Tiffany out for  
lunch, 
or ice cream at noon. 
 
& her childlike whims! 
Do you take note as  
she floats w/ grace? 
In the verisimilitude  
of a rose she’s pure  
of heart, & gorgeous. 
When  
galaxies sink down  
upon vast horizons, 
 
I’ll be your ally M. & 
one day, we’ll join 
forces 
to find out—what’s 
required to please  
a lovely girl (before  
mercurial moons). 
She’d rather fight, 
or die than have to explain a thing! 

Karl Bachmann is a poet-philosopher, world traveler & aficionado of East Asian cultures. He studies—or makes use of six languages & enjoys engaging-philosophical-debates. “How much of fiction is history, & how much of history is fiction?” he asks in our fast-food nation, only to be told, “human connections are weak.” He of course replies, “I always do my best to make it otherwise.” In the last twenty years he has visited four countries outside of the United States. He enjoys tea ceremony & Shodō, silent-reflection & long walks into the sunset.

 
 

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