Yang Chu’s Poem 50
Flaneurs frustrated, Andre Breton,
Synchronistic fantasies blocked,
Unconsious,
The unknown, has no aleatory stimulation
To open
The nailed doors of the un-
Known,
The I-am unconscious. Flaneurs
Cannot see the Algerian gee gaws,
Trinkets, bibelots,
Silver fish hooks,
Books with Jardin de Plantes goat-skin covers
Displayed
Gutta percha doll dressed as Security
Guards.
Flaneurs cannot see the sweet Rabbi doll
That stands on one foot while reciting from memory
The total Torah.
Flaneurs cannot see what originates the dark night
Entrance to the unitive life, when the automatic
And a tea ceremony find
the sacred.
Flaneurs cannot see what is inside the shopping mall
Show window--not even the surreal Rosa Luxemburg,
Her body dissolving, dripping to form a yellow rose
On a sweater-making machine in
Viet Nam--
Due to the flags draped over the glass. The country
Is at war again. Every shopkeeper must support the American
Empire.
Flaneurs are more concerned with Pound's Cantos, Eliot's
Wasteland, Williams' Patterson, Olson's Maximus than
1600 BC cattle rustlers called armies and their modernization
As thieves of oil.
Flaneurs with nostalgia don grey flannels, think about
Uncontainable abundance,
Lament the simulated patriotism
That diminishes with flags and flag shadows
The alterity of best sellers
Scattered on dark purple velvet in mall's book stores.
In their pockets they carry copies of Kierkegaard.
- Duane Locke