Quartet Quandary

Image borrowed from Bing

Quartet  Quandary 

“There are issues of trust, deep trust, in the way the members

of a string quartet learn to interact with one another.”

--Yo-Yo Ma.

I.

“My life has been a dance that has walked a song 

that was spoken”--Maya Angelou

There can be, 

there is poetry in the naked motion

            of sports heroes,

                models,

                body builders & dancers;

where gluts flex boldly over

                                    undulating thighs,

                                                     bulging calves

                                                                  & expressive feet;

where Abs stand in rigid rows

                                    like militiamen on parade,

where deltoids partner with 18” biceps,

                                     with triceps as wing men;

where hands stroke their lovers,

                      sculpt faces from granite,

                                paint giant flowers that resemble

                                vaginal vessels of loveliness. 

II.

“If you are a dreamer, come in, sit by my fire, for we have

flax-golden tales to spin.”--Shel Silverstein.

I tell you we must dream about Peace even

               while we wield the weapons of War,

               follow orders,

               take innocent lives;

while we witness others among us

               waving Confederate flags,

                            calling our President

                                             a mongrel nigger monkey,

or standing with oaken billy clubs

                            & preventing black Americans

                                             from voting;

while we suffer the staggering ignorance of

homophobic

sexist

racist

misanthropic 

elitist bullies who

         dearly love to keep their boots

                                         on the beautiful necks

                                                                   of white doves;

for Peace is achievable, but it has to be fought for--

     Liberty has never been a mere entitlement;

                        it is reward for our sacrifices.

III.

“The word was born in the blood, grew up in the dark body,

beating, & took flight through the lips & mouth.”

--Pablo Neruda.

And what is the Word--

                          Love, Larceny, Lunacy--

                          Bastard, Brotherhood, Buttock--

                          Equality, Elephant, Evergreen--

                          Hindu, Hate, Horny--

                          Rose, Rhyme, Rigor-mortis--

                          Ferrari, Fellacio, Fire--

                          Cheetah, Callous, Conflict--

                          Breast, Bathroom, or Buick?

And how is the Word communicated best,

               through speech, epithet, prose, or poetry?

And the answer is YES,

               each word a gift, the birth

               of a child, where you are cast as

                                                               Creator,

                                                                Parent, & Pariah

in equal measure.         Yes not No, the sonorous sound of your voice

                               with the breathy hum of your inner harmony.

IV.

" A man can get by for 70 years without a piece of ass, but

he will die in a week without a bowel movement.”

--Charles Bukowski.

My grandfather often used to tell me,

                         “ The day will come, my boy, when you would

rather take a good crap than have

                           a terrific piece of ass.”

Though I am not aboard that boat

               yet, I can attest to the fact

               that Cascara Sagrada

can be a gentle friend when life’s conflicts

                                             lead to a bewildering state

                                             of constipation.

We are certainly not fooling our colons,

                for it is keenly aware of when

                                             we are full of shit. 

                          

                          

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over on dVerse Poets

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