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