Wasting Time At the Talk Machine

Painting and poetry by Rick Mobbs


Wasting time at the talk machine ( for Fernandita Sosa )

(We try to make sense of things at the talk machine behind Burger King.)

Wasting time at the takl machine
my dollar card broke in two.
I haven’t got a penny now,
that’s why I’m calling you.

The penny I had was red and was round
and my niña had drilled it through.
I carried it tied to my nickel stick,
beside the picture of you.

A piece of blue ribbon
A bit of red twine
A nylon thread
A silver line

A monkey named Altair
A cat named M’Goo
A feathered invisible
memory of you

You fell east
and I fell west
when my dollar card broke in two.
Talk Machine laughed
to see such a sight
and nickel stick thumped
and the monkey took fright.

And I and my niña
with what hurt and surprise
saw separate, and faraway
with angry new eyes.

And penny trailed ribbon
across the new sky,
and Kerplunk! in the ocean.
Kerplunk! and goodbye.

Now you’re in the Andes
And I’m in Tibet.
I’ll count the Lamas, the Sherpas,
the yaks.
You count the llamas,
the Incas, the Aztecs.

While tissue-roll-trails
thrown by Saturday clowns
rain from the hillsides
and bounce to the towns.

I name the colors
that spin from each bounce.
It’s a job, since you’re gone.
It’s a job, little else.

You gave me my color
you gave me my crown
you taught me to love
this mingling of sounds.

And Isabel rides
on a gray-black background.
And Isabel’s sighs
are a river of sound.

But it doesn’t make sense!
You said and you laughed.
But mi vida, chiquitica, was charmed
as you might have guessed.

What harm
when the uttermost
peaks of distress
carry our flags
remember our bootsteps?

If you cry for water
I pray it is water you get.
Not penguins
or polar bears
or footsteps that fade
as they pass.

Innocent water,
kind wings in the darkness.
Innocent water, mi vida,
chiquitica,
mi niñaness.

Rick Mobbs 2008