Unicosm
some like to read the railroad tracks
reflect on journeys past
some gaze at the sky
anticipate upcoming cloud formations
Some discuss running away
what chases them
what ensnares them in place
Each creates their own universes
Storing them up
Or discarding them in the dumpster with scattered package wrapping and useless electronics
— Zumwalt (2016)
Cousteau and Darwin Move to Suburbia
Like pilot fish
Affixed, transfixed
Upon the gluttonous chin
Of the maneater,
We give thanks and
Humbly suck the detritus
From Fate’s
Serrated mandibles.
The irony of Sophocles
Is just the symbiosis
Of little fish
And unevolved vertebrates
Scrubbing their gills
With polluted waters,
Lacking the initiative
To crawl up the bank, and breathe.
— Zumwalt (1981)
a single word
words, words, words
static over static
drilling deeply thru the dentine
scraping invasively against skull and skin
your line of supply is inexhaustible
arguments, propositions, explanations
predications, exclamations, excuses
all unecessary barking and bow-wowing
at hidden celestial objects
I am here
don’t chase me away
unless you want me
to be chased away
I am yours
don’t bombard
your own firmly secured posessions with
ammo best saved for those territories still unconquered
give me short compact sentences
phrases and single words
ideas as consumable as quarter pounders
don’t shove a hose down my throat
filling me with mashed escargot and foie gras
words, words, words
I can’t sustain a relationship with them
pelting me from every angle at every moment that
we’re together
take your finger off the trigger
I surrender
make me a prisoner
not a confirmed casualty
words, words, words
they all sound the same
they don’t mean anything
they just demean, meander
and make me end up thinking
that when all is said
I haven’t heard
a single word.
— Zumwalt (1990)
Overflow
Treading on thin lines
Like a marginal ropewalker
A lively rosalia
Imitates the chains of population
And a farandola
Is forced to associate
With septuplets.
Grapes and fapes
And berries and cherries
Are often used in wine
While the stronger stuff
Will bear no fruit
But would rather
Base its structure on grain.
A foundation falters when
The edifice
Is too
Tall
And that is why there are
building codes
And yet laws may be broken
And in such disasters
Man's fate will tumble like a
hippopotamus on
ice.
— Zumwalt (1974)
Alizarian Grand Slam
Manifest crescendos
Homeopathically kneepanning Santa Fe plethora
Safely soaking with the mangoes. Are there
Any removable transversals
Balancing on the Pawnee Indian?
Aaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiii!
Saliva adorns my peanut butter.
— Zumwalt (1973)
Trilogy of the Oblique Carbide
I. Judge Crater Is No More
Help!
There is a fandango up my nose;
This is justice?
O ironic gods -- can they
Really repossess my pancreas?
And Black and Decker tread on the cosmic puddles
URRRP!
II. Moira
My ravioli molded to day...
The wispy green fuzz eating
Away the corrupted entrails of Alpha Beta
Ground sirloin.
Pathos. Tragedy. Tricanosis.
Such is fate.
III. Cry the beloved wingnut
Bladderwort lied.
Bigot! And the hungry children cry
In their farina. Would Rothschild give
Them Twinkies? Ha! Let them eat Spackling paste.
Spush! Time, the rain-bird, spews
Its indifference towards the continuum of OHM.
— Zumwalt (1973)
She serves yogurt
Stupidly, like a dying man stumbling into a life insurance office,
I asked her out.
“What night did you have in mind?”
“Thursday would be best.”
“Sir, I don’t know how old you think I am but I am sixteen.”
Stunned, I made no reply and she took it for composure
and said yes,
warning me that her mother would have a fit.
-zumwalt (1991)
zumpoems 