IV Weights and Balances [ 01/27/07 As you may have concluded, "Doom" is the only poem in Part IV of Rooted Sky 2007. It has fifteen sections. I have toned it down somewhat. The original is more abrasive; nonetheless, I tend to view it as an adult poem. It definitely is an example of what W. B. Yeats believed: out of our arguments with others we make rhetoric; but out of our arguments with ourselves we make poetry. B A J S ] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Doom an argumentative interior dialogue 1 What questions do you have for yourself for a hobgoblin world Arthur Alone in the sweating jackpine in the shagbark stream did the eyes of the owl melt you Alone in the sale day laughter in the sulphurous alley did the screams of a woman crack you Arthur are you flesh or spirit at all 2 Come after me brown hair brown eyes little man but do not think you know where I am & do not think I can really be found As winds pulse a thousand ways so I As earth shifts away from itself & into itself so I There are times when a person cannot rise from the tangle of sleep with any rightness What questions would I ask myself what questions this hobgoblin world O dark creator I am myself a question In the thistle days I have travelled when the goldfinch gathers down I have noted most men most wise Still come after me son of January soak into roots burst into air crumble into God 3 Into God Arthur Crumble yes but not into God O damn damn nation United States me United States how many graceful trees you have mulched into bills how many heart-pure minds you have paled & trained me O break break away United States & you Arthur how can you lead who are merely a question 4 Hoh Of January indeed Sit down If all things in the universe curve repeat themselves changed but subtly the seed of the apple is answer & question the apple tree is answer & question the apple blossom is answer & question the apple is answer & question if all things in the universe so you so I Do not think you can find me Though I am forever I am only for a while I am never as I was & yet I am even as you and so have direction in the words from my bowels in the smells of roses in the turning chewing seeking of God 5 God again Arthur What's with you Man Man is the problem the center the shattering light 6 Okay But don't be surprised when the lilies bow the minnows dance the birds praise & your thin mouth opens in wonder 7 I won't i won't Seren- serendipity That would be good a still point of energy But I my direction weights and balances inhabiting the air dancing in the void words around death There's a tree I know of on a farm halfway between Fond du Lac & Oshkosh whose upper & outer branches set dead from a core thickly green Whenever I ponder men or see my own reflection I recall that tree Arthur I know what wonder is and can I've felt violets wink in secret woods & die I understand the emotions behind axioms on infinity I've smiled at a baby smiling at me You do not have to condescend I've watched myself spit & stammer yell out fuck kill been inside my fantasies of sex with all heard the sounds of stabs into tradition of time in a daydream room of hell I have not missed the odor of your wishes 8 You have not missed Would you grasp this Earth how it leans ever more toward Vega Would you realize if you are right about that schozoid tree you claim is so important to you you cannot say with ease this country this world or anything is dead Would you bless this planet which moves ever more toward toward Son I would give you a way 9 Where In the realm of dream In the Blood of Christ We have run into ourselves these latter years & our tiny planet expanding expanding expanding the sphere taut the dermis thin & our centers tremble our nerve-ends split Baffled bare we worship the sun we roll in the grass while the termites of uncertainty hollow out our bones There is no enchantment & the center of it all has long been lost ki-dee ki-dee ki ki ki ki ki-dee bird I cannot find bobbing walker on inland shores ki-dee ki-dee we are passing on like butterflies we are circling downthrough death dee dee ki-dee Would I grasp WouldI bless I do not know 10 Undo Not a petal shines without you not a beam of steel endures Play in a canyon swimming hole work in a stolid office it is always you At the dark edge of the universe in the heart of your gut it is you Pass from this self-pollution Undo 11 Cherry blossoms That's what you want isn't it or spaceships rising in salvia spikes of flame Well I'm not in the mood So bananas 12 Ha-ha Ryan you're a kink-and-a-half Oh what the heck Look I'm not about to force you into peace & happiness I couldn't anyway But at least your humor's alive 13 Ya Let me tell you something One afternoon when I was eleven or twelve squirming like a river-bottom worm on the living room carpet holding back urine my eyes sunk to my throat the family vanished In a field full of spiders & strawberries it was growing it was hardening & my heart rattled my flesh smiled Closed into lead into nowhere I'd ever known I suddenly opened as a lake-borne wind through a morning grass heavy with dew But I did not understand & I did not trust & anxiously hid & still at times I feel I am just a contorted cypress splattering high on a crag by the sea 14 Ryan Ryan Is it really all so bad Is there really no way you can see beyond destruction Certainly stars will outlast our frail O but must we reject ourselves believe our limitations have finally ended us that humanity can not other than suicide that the one great sin of Man (if sin there be) is his being Man earth air water fire mind heart What we know & do not know Questions without answers There is always wonder What we are & might become What we never once can be There is always God If churches if institutions shatter there will yet be lovers kissing over daisies there will yet be men discovering how to live Green green Earth & blue & white & brown I enchant myself to nectar & am taken by thebee I wish myself to milk & am swallowed by the child Frailty strength in frailty protect acquire From the ugliest of matter a rose From the darkest specks ofenergy a paragon of light 15 Blasted Just look at these fingers Ink all over them God bless it this has got to be the leakiest pen I've ever seen Now why in Hades can't they make things right Crud I'm goin' for a walk
------- Brian A. J. Salchert
