Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Trinity Tales



image borrowed from bing


Trinity Tales

“Pessimism, distrust, & irony are the holy trinity of
my personal religion; irony in particular.”--Brando Skyhorse. 

I.
I stood downtown
            in front of a department store window
                        that was being busily decorated
                        for Halloween;           ghosts,
                                                          goblins
                                                          ghouls
                                                          gnomes
                                              gnarly green giants;
            pumpkin princes,
            pirate’s parrots,
            pernicious pariahs,
            puzzling palindromes;
dwarves,
dragons,
dingle-berries,
donut mushrooms, &
death defying ducks--              & I was barely aware
                       of the other people busily
                       crowding around me;                babbling,
                       buzzing, agitated, frightened, not seeing
the young woman lying on her back
                       on the pavement,
turning blue,
limbs twitching in
full seizure,
eyes rolled back,
with coffee-colored foam            covering red lips,
                        staining her yellow silk blouse. 

II.
Leaving the Art theater
              with a female friend,
                        right after viewing a revival
                                         of Bergman’s PERSONA,
my arms sawing the air,
my excited words rising & falling
                  in the evening’s chill,
                  trying to explain, what I perceived as
                                              the psychological existential symbolism
within the classic Swedish film,
the commonly encountered nature
                       of those who are too easily
                       other-directed, & the too human
                                               need for some to follow (blindly)
                                               & others to lead (arrogantly),
carefully drawing a fascinating parallel
                       to the topical reality of young malcontents
                       being too easily recruited, trained, & turned
                                               into home-grown terrorists;
then suddenly
        finding our path blocked
        by two men in black hoodies, just as
I saw the muzzle of the Glock;
       We’ll be taking your wallets & watches, mother fuckers,
                        the shorter one said. 

III.
For delicious decades,
we have lived in a house
                        rife with portals, humming
                        with metaphysical psychic meditative imagery,
and often, too often
                 according to my three daughters,
                 we all detect movement & presence
in our periphery--
          people & pets             who are not there,
                                             but were there
          for a few fleeting moments.

We call them the Visitors, and for the most part
         they have always been gregarious,
         as they stroll & slice through
                      several dimensional veils, even
         the ones who actually materialize
for a minute, or an elongated part of one,
visiting with us in plain sight.             My wife & I
         have always been receptive to
                      and in tune with
these visits;
& that’s made all the difference. 


Glenn Buttkus

Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics

Would you like to hear the author read this poem to you?

                        

        
                           

19 comments:

Brian Miller said...

yikes...hopefully you see the mugger a bit earlier to keep yourself out of that situ...did that really happen?

cool elements in this one...the list nature of the first one is cool...and cool that you did it alphabetically....and the use of parenthesis in the second is cool too....

Mary said...

Well, it is good to be comfortable with the 'visitors' in one's midst as long as they basically leave a person alone. I always heard that after a human or a pet passes away they are sometimes seen for a few days before their spirit leaves, but I have never experienced that. I do think the metaphysical experience would be pretty amazing though.

Marina Sofia said...

Wow - what a powerful trilogy of poems you have here, ranging from the desolate to the terrifying to the benign. That Halloween list sounds like a paean to horror consumerism...

brudberg said...

A powerful trio.. the end of the first one like a punch in the stomach in the way we are all captivated in our fascinated with the Halloween plastic horror and missing the real thing happening right in front of us... good to hear you have visitors that are not benign.. I liked this a lot..

Claudia said...

ha - i like all the p words - and d-words...and g-words... and heck.. what a story as well.. being aware of those visitors is a good thing... i guess the one with the glock though didn't disappear too quickly

Unknown said...

Ah, my mother has encounters w/ spirits; not too long ago, she told me she felt a presence climb over her as she slept. She woke up, and felt the hoover of someone standing over her; then, she felt a cold hand slide down her arm. Also, years ago, the night after my grandma's husband died, she felt his spirit climb in bed with her. The next morning, her bedroom TV had been strangely unplugged... Some say it's silly to believe in ghost, I say not believing is...

Lena Wallis said...

I especially like what you've done with this visually.

Anonymous said...

This is an amazing 3-section poem that I will read a few times to capture all that you have woven in. These lines: and for the most part "they have always been gregarious,./as they stroll & slice through/several dimensional veils," are quite brilliant. Wonderful piece :)

Kathy Reed said...

Well of all the Halloweenitis, I am not aware of death defying ducks! But oh my, the woman in distress! Can just picture your hands moving in sign language and wide gestures to get a point across to a friend ;-) and being surprised by what 'lay waiting in the margins'...and thirdly, the friendly ghosts of the past, nice they are cool to be around and don't haunt you to death! All 3 scenarios promote ponderings, thought, questions, how much is really going on at a given moment ,,,everywhere, all the time!!

Truedessa said...

Hi Glenn,

The visitors had me as I often can sense the paranormal..so visitors become not so strange in my world. I see you once again are not short on words..I am smiling wide here as I do enjoy your writings.

Katie Mia Frederick said...

Yes.. i guess the price of goblins.. and other October.. festivities.. can turn an eye away from REAL suffering...2

And ah.. the price of high arts in culture.. life in an area.. where muggers thrive too... perhaps there's not much to pocket here.. as it is rare...where i live...

And OH.. the haunted house.. reminds me of a work place of past.. that looks like a dungeon.. and is actually a converted German prison camp.. at a Navy flying field of free bird air...

But perhaps.. some left overs.. of pain there..
still remains.. and why they call it the dungeon..still..:)after ALL to now..:)dark and light...
do remain...

And the balance i still chase2..:)as well in WELL..2

Mark Butkus said...

I really love this poem G! The pacing right off the bat got me into the poem and each section had an unexpected reveal.

vb holmes said...

Like the diversity of your three poems--and am especially taken by the fact that you were unaware of the flesh-and-blood figures around you but are "receptive to and in tune with" your ghostly Visitors. In-ter-est-ing.

Myrna R. said...

I enjoyed reading these three poems. They all have their special view. I like the last one best for its mystery. You're a good student of human nature.

Joseph Hesch said...

Stay tuned in, my friend. And someday you must teach me the how and why of moving lines off to the right. But then, I have so much to learn from you.

Anonymous said...

nicely crafted - never been robbed, just a matter of time I guess

Sreeja said...

three different moods....well a shift from one to another and I like the home with visitors....liked the way you presented things in an interesting way...

Anonymous said...

A new favorite of yours. I have seen Persona--I don't remember it as well as I should--but a gripping movie, and this sense of shifting identities and how one's own is created by what is around is very cleverly portrayed here- in this very dramatic poem--really the narrative is so strong. I hope you were not held up, but I can easily imagine a scene caught up in the movie--the halloween and the poor women, and the openness to those visiting from some where very well caught and portrayed. Thanks, Glenn. Sorry to be so slow in returning your visit. Much enjoyed your poem. k.

Anonymous said...

An amazing trio here, Glenn. The first one lingers for a while.