TICKER TAPE PARADE
Parody Worship
Smiling in the Dusk of Midnight Eyes
Acting in the Bleakness
of Frosted Minds
Paced Paper Parade —
Pausing Promises Pleading
Past the Cineramic
Sycophantic Sharks
a Coldness Recedes
and Faith Breakers Retreat
into Placebos of Reeling Celluloid
— Zumwalt (1981)
Bull Market
The gardeners have hit the pavement,
Bulldozed by smiling engineers
Optimists—peddling bromides.
Take your pick:
Withdraw your last fiver
For a philosophic Wheel-O;
or,
Hands in your pockets, sardonic
Watch Babel climb.
“On this spot will be erected utopia”
Yeah, sure.
But, the wise man knows Penelope
Has taken on Ithaca
And counsels Odysseus to put his
Money in Krugerrands.
— Zumwalt (late 1980’s)
deleterious habitat
hot southern heat
baking your alaska
the smog fills your
lungs like sand
in a dersadrop humidifier
breathing is a function
and we are approaching an asymptote
three toed sloths trek through the treptremanian soil
burning air and burning phylum
cough…
cough…
cough…
It is time to let me out.
— Zumwalt (1974)
might as well forget her
she's
dropped
like a hot rock
pizza pipers peddling pieces of purposeful product
not at all like
lipstick, perfume, deodorants
and other such shallow items
cleatamenthate degarglycide throntine
it does me no good to say i miss her
i don't
and if I ever find myself missing her
then something's missing in me
craters, black light, dew drops, frozen stages,
and a topping of dehydrated marshmallow sauce.
the world is full --
it's full of fools
and common sense has vaporized
like an ice cube on the sun.
— Zumwalt (1974)
zumpoems 