The relay
I know I must, but how, I ask;
I must understand that of which to ponder.
Action waits for thought,
and thought seems far away;
action is distrusting.
Is it this or that;
how does this impact that,
how does that get impacted?
Action’s fate depends on thought;
if thought runs too far or not enough,
action is disqualified.
-zumwalt apr ’98
Imperfect information
You
and I
face off
with
battleships
on
secret
squares
sequentially
taking
pot
shots
wherever we
choose.
A
thin board
separates
our
lines
of sight
A
thick
carpet,
underneath.
This
is
a sequential game
even
when
I
attack
out
of
turn
each
and
every move
is
built
on the
one before.
Round
after
round
we proudly announce
a
target
square.
Sometimes
we
hit
Sometimes
we
m
i
s
s
But
never
fail to
attack.
Salvo,
my friend
When
you are most
relaxed
and think
all is
calm waters.
As
long as
there
are ships
afloat
There
will be
missiles
launched
across
these
now choppy seas.
Salvo,
my friend
All
shots at once
against
our better
judgment.
As
long as
there
are missiles
to launch
There
will be
ships
targeted
aggravating
these
now choppy seas.
But
once it is
clear
there
is some
chance at
sinking
even
one
ship
We
pull
back,
bend
the
rules,
re-
arrange
our
positions,
midway,
put some
ships
in reserve,
deny
any
cease fire
and
secretly
fill out
our
battle reports.
-zumwalt (2011)
In contest with a hippopotamus
me and the hippo
race
to lose weight
at such a frantic yet erratic pace
me and the fruit fly vie
to try to not age
to postpone the next stage
to delay each and every turn of every single page
Hey babe! What? I’m staying away from the eggs.
And the butter.
So don’t stay away from me.
Hey boy! Look — I am not old.
I expect to send tingles down your spine,
not receive a courteous nod like you’d give to your great-grandmother
several years after she’s been buried.
Gee.
This dog I have smells.
No bath rids the odor.
No change of diet freshens the breath.
The only remaining option is to the change the dog
for I am getting tired of changing the carpet.
me and the sunset
will meet again
at some appointed time
until then I compete against the shadow it causes the body to cast
seeking any remaining light while vanishing in the darkness
— Zumwalt (May 1991)
Reposted for dVerse challenge: http://dversepoets.com/2011/11/19/poetics-changes/
We
see
a tree! A tree!
Since it’s the last one living free
We will grab it quickly for our family.
A Tree!!!
Crop the lower middle to the
Top off!
Chop!!! Chop!!!
Don’t yet Stop!
Hear the Plop!
Chop! Chop!! Chop!!! Chop!!! Chop! Chop! Chop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
— Zumwalt (2011)
(see related poem https://zumpoems.com/2011/07/10/theyve-stripped-the-forest-for-babble/)
Zumwalt’s response to http://dversepoets.com/2011/11/17/form-for-all-beth-winter-hosts-staccato-form/#comment-5757 This is, in Zumwalt’s words, “a crime against this staccato form that pales in comparison to crimes against nature.”)
The ball is in our courts
The shirts press the skins
looking for the turnover.
The skins set screens to break the press
and force overtime.
The two teams play
without arena staff,
relying on unknown referees,
the crowd locked out of the building.
It is a territorial sport
that knows no season
and cares little about the ticking of the clock.
It is a rich person’s sport
like shooting barasingha
or showering with Krug champagne.
Would my boss keep me from working
if I refuse a multi-million dollar contract
and fifty-fifty revenue sharing?
Would I be laughed at
if I asked for vacation from May
through September
with October for retraining?
It’s not so much that I worry
about the players or the owners
it’s more about the lost life-risking excavating opportunities
for the mal-nourished children of Sierra Leone and Angola
as demand for diamonds by the NBA elite precipitously declines.
It’s not so much that I worry
about lost revenue for TNT and ESPN —
it’s whether this ultimately means
that Superbowl pregame coverage starts around St. Patrick’s Day.
Nonetheless, I am patient:
I can do without annoying puppet commercials
and twenty-seven-attempts slam dunk contests,
but I have one question
is it much of a game
when it’s not the players,
not the owners
that lose their shirts
but only the arena employees and nearby small business blue-collar workers?
— Zumwalt 2011
The Handcuff King
Escape pays for now:
suspend me upside down;
lock glass and steel;
fill fully;
water flowing over.
But if my escapes entertains,
understand that it is my existence.
I can handle building-size milk cans, Chinese water torture cells,
underwater crates and being buried alive.
Faced with flight or forced-fight,
the choice is easy
but understand I must force fight to flee:
no escape is without struggle.
But without escape or the opportunity of one,
I must hang on
and for how long?
Until I burst?
Or until I meet the next world:
the destiny of all that depart?
Explain to me the retreat available:
the extrication that sidesteps;
the evasion that slips the lock,
that springs a liberation.
No, you know no more than I about withdrawal.
You just know more about staying the course
and that won’t help much
when I need to leave, not the visage of death,
but death itself
and its closely shrouded, tightly bound design.
— Zumwalt (2011)
what soul is not besieged
what soul is not besieged by rotten eggs and soft tomatoes
by answers unreturned and questions unsent
by minutes that make up hours and hours
that tear down the day
what mind is not put upon and
once put upon
cast off into a corner
what body is not battered and
beaten by the blows it shields
itself from
what soul is not bombarded
by twenty-two gauge shot and mortar fire
by unresolved cadential patterns
that whine around the head
by invalidation of beliefs and
of what one has seen and sensed
there is reason to suspect that one can grow
if only the rainy season didn’t last
the entire year.
— Zumwalt (1991)
There is no “i” in Phalanx
Across calescent karstic plains,
attentive, observant, at walking pace,
searching
for a more than suitable place
to play these noble and momentous games,
purposely, resolutely stopping at this very ground
we converge and then assemble in formation
deliberately
aligning and establishing our corresponding location
shields brought up and eyes directed all around.
There is no certified start to victory.
There is no established end to self-defeat.
There is no single push that doesn’t come down to shove,
after which we hold, advance or consider our retreat.
The battle starts and shields meet shields
as outer layer on outer layer peels off and drops;
advancing
forward with counter-jabs and counter-blocks,
the winning forces shed more blood as the losing army yields.
There is no I in Phalanx.
There is no me in attack.
There is no volition in my ammunition
but there is no heading back.
As victor forces scatter defeated ranks
fallen bodies insist on being active players
incidentally
tripping up their remaining slayers
prolonging this conflict with mutilated arms, twisted torsos and lifeless shanks.
There may be stop but there is no end
and some sense of quiet but never peace.
There is some faint attempt to circumvent
but there is no means to cease.
And two thousand years later
archeologists dig for artifacts
and scour the settled ground
in which is conceivably found
the trace of the last impact.
This is what was left behind
and not much more
but then, what will be left again
when two thousand more years occur
and someone else digs around
excavating some hint of a sign
of those that previously searched these dusty mounds?
At some future moment this is all totally untraceable,
the conclusion of which is particularly inescapable:
no matter the plan or materiel,
all efforts are unavoidably replaceable
but much more to the point,
everything,
chalked up or not,
is ultimately and permanently erasable.
— Zumwalt (2011)
On an afternoon
On a breezy summer afternoon
two universes, once far apart,
approached each other
and drawn by forces
not easily understood,
collided
and created the beginnings
of a universe
with different rules and circumstances
than the previous two.
Dense and hot,
close and furious,
with energy beyond any expectation
this new universe started,
expanded,
establishing first an identity
and then a history.
Heat gave way to growth
and sometimes we gave way to each other.
Attraction resulted in collisions
and each left their own marks on the other.
I once knew another universe
so different
but not so long ago.
Now there is only this one
with its own rules
and strange little quarks.
I once grew in another universe
with not such clear boundaries.
It was less predictable
and less complicated
without any out-of-equilibrium decay scenarios
or unexpected violations of time inversion symmetry.
This universe
gave us the nursery:
each star more important
than the universe itself
but adding to and altering its very fabric.
Yet, how could I not notice
that each star had its very own universe
and paid little attention to the grander scheme.
Envious, I was, like the biker who sold his Harley
and had to watch it be driven off the lot.
This universe gave us grandchildren:
each one more precious than any law of physics.
Yet, how could I not note that this
was the measurement of time.
I cannot escape this universe,
I cannot go back to the one I had.
I do not know the difference between you and I
or the underlying nature of this universe itself.
I do not know where your universe went
or what part it played in the one we share.
I cannot see how this universe ends
or if it still depends on you and I.
On a breathtaking, brilliant summer afternoon
two independent universes, each with its own part,
appropriated each other
and created new forces
not easily withstood,
coincided,
and then guided the beginnings
of a universe
with different composition and consequences
than the previously predominant two.
— Zumwalt (2011)
zumpoems 