from Blackwater Quartet, selection 112

Preludes for Prepared Piano

Duke Ellington’s “Such Sweet Thunder”, a montage based on
Shakespeare characters, was created for the Stratford Festival. The
original album was released in 1957.

1. Such Sweet Thunder

The simple formula is:
the time of the bullet’s flight, times the speed of prey
gives lead-bullet flight time,
one length for the kill zone front half of the trophy
buck.

I’ve never smelled anything like it—
dank, earthy wetlands,
underlying notes of chocolate, anise, redwood.

The rig dog caught the scent; the others
whine, squeal, yip from hollows to hardwood ridges,
inhaling its heat, long quivering wails fading.
It seemed everywhere at once, and then
turned towards us, one mutual cry forever
with the aberration.

I usually observe one constellation at a time,
my last in Canes Venatici, the greyhounds of Boötes.
Luckily, above the sky glow of the cities,
removed from the horizon haze, you see
that much more clearly, something
feral, hi fi.

 
2. Sonnet for Caesar

One of his horsemen conveys a letter in Greek characters.

Caesar requires more metaphors against decipherment:
ambition, corruption, power, up to and after
the Ides of March (zip file of this,
force-marched to the territory of the Nervii).
For my part, I haue walk’d about the streets
submitting me unto the perillous night,
in a public place, in a street near the Capital
before the house of Brutus.

Caesar had minted the first coin with the image of a living Roman.

Elizabethan pronunciation of the likeness:
a portrait of storms and blood crazed crowds,
low string tremolandos, the tutti gesture
clearing to fanfares.

 
3. Sonnet for Hank Cinq

Falstaff to London— in a public street, the King tells him
never come within ten miles of me again.

Back in his lodgings, a blue glass lamp near the window—
when he came back, the light was on the floor,
the heavy glass lampshade shattered,
higher order objects distributed, but the light still glowing.

Another part of the field, mort de ma vie, all is confounded,
all our ranks broke. God let him live to see his greatness fail,
to teach others how they should prepare.

When swing was king, dreamsville galactic all night jam,
Hercules tattoo, hello kitty sound check…

English archers pouring arrows into
a number of recurring metaphors, irresponsible
wanton, transform.

4. Lady Mac

Attention all hipsters,
hepcats, swingers, a new and foreign reality.

What, in our house?
A test, to tell whether your mission
on earth is finished, the soldiers of Malcolm
attack Macbeth, camouflages with coppers
in the trees of Birnam forest.

I went to Macbeth with Marisa, this girl who goes to Muir
who random IQ’d me.
It was a pretty good show, but as I heard from people
in my acting class, the costumes were horrible.
Being queen
isn’t as much fun as she thought.

So much blood, poor self-talk, like that of most of us,
doomed,
your own degrees incremental, this haunting
echo of false steps, then
I turn the word, neuter penetrating

sleeplessness.

5. Sonnet in Search of a Moor

Rearranging the letters, Othello the Moor of Venice, gives
oh lover felt emotion echo,
a tragedy, divers times acted at the Globe
by His Majesties Servants, practicing upon His Peace
even unto Madness.

The endless mask of photocopied time-tables, study guides.

In the film, Paradise in Harlem, lots of mobsters.
Doll, the nightclub singer, takes a bullet for Lem, who plays
Othello somehow, then sings a couple of songs.
Lucky Millander and his Orchestra, the final act, Desdemona
says don’t worry, I’m the type who’s going to die in bed.

Black moves first, the game ends when no player can move.

Think on your sins, he says, and she responds they
are the loves I bear to you.

6. The Telecasters

 

 

The cyclical nature of violence and time—
this is not taking place in the distant past,
always present.

A variety of puppets is used,
a rod and Bunraku, doll-like puppets originating
in Japanese theatre, double
double.

A shot fired broadside,
a salvo, stating Billy Joe Hobert,
Washington’s starting quarterback,
received unsecured loans from a nuclear scientist,
thousands of dollars in cash from boosters,
money from prescription drugs, cocaine,
illegally altered cellular phones.

Scabby skulls look like rotten bark.
The phantom dagger before me, water mimes holding it up,
they name the witches Water, Wind, Fire, make them stage managers,
engineers. Tempters in slinky leather tunics
rising out of the fountain as the lights come up,
shape our perceptions, compelling gestures, devilish.

Yes, my coffee was still hot.
I’d slept but a moment, I could hear my wife on the phone
in the next room.

What you know, you know.

7. Up and Down, Up and Down

(I Will Lead Them Up and Down)

Scene: Athens, and a wood near it—
the fierce vexation.

Between gigs, we squeezed in gruelling studio time,
going through several bottles of water,
countless takes churning out “Poison Ivy”.

Several parks knew the trampling of our feet, chasing
frisbees and each other.
We tanned seductively on the beach.
We took our meals at various local hangouts,
no doubt jolting the clientele with the volume,
the vibration.
Romping through shopping malls before confused sales clerks,
we spent an evening absorbing the phenomenon.

By imitating men’s voices
I keeps the lovers apart until they each fall asleep,
then the herb.

Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed, others attending,
up, down, the all around
one revolving point in space, here comes my messenger.

Foolish mortals.

8. Sonnet for Sister Kate

Somebody singing Kate, mighty good,
late but up to date, I mean shaking it like her.

Three times as many women between 30 and 34 never married.

Liberty or death.

On that same day, she met her father,
also her biological sister, no intention of letting
the notorious roué anywhere near— careless love.
None of us had been there since 9/11.

Orbit around colliding with
same old moon,
this is a translation from Enchanted Rock State Park in Texas.

Her collection contained 83 letters, 81 from the same guy,
in her spare time developing a simple dress pattern cut
to a woman’s body.

9. Star-Crossed Lovers


Giardino sotto il balcone di Giulietta, what light.

Sulky, lovesick Verona,
pretty costumes, the dynamic gestures, props
gritty, in your face, non-stop attention to detail,
fast track gangsta chic body count.

Light against darkness, moonbeams,
sunrise, sunset, candles and torches, crazed trumpet solo,
alto sax offset by quick coming clouds, night.

Pining, growing softly sibilant,
her favourite word in the local dialect
the one for the exterior of the Freud Museum.

She assumes the listening position.

 
10. Madness in Great Ones 


None of the actors leaves the stage.
They sit in the background, unnoticed except
making noises to intensify the moment,
the fax rolling off a fine innovation.

Well, Mr Crazy, I suppose you think that’s ok.

I know this girl, putting on black eyeliner,
sleeping in it, wearing it out.
Anyways, I talked to O for like four hours, I said to her,
grunge prince,
isn’t that the guy who has liked you since forever?
I heard a lady ask if those lines were really in the play.

Even sick, he never missed a call.
Once, he got stiff joints, so he bought some Tiger Balm,
but he forgot about his hands and got it on his dick.
It burned like hell.
I asked him what was the matter, and he said,
I put Tiger Balm on my dick, and I said
for the character, right?

Wordless presence,
there’s no chance something similar might happen to us.

There was no need for her to remarry. 


11. Half the Fun

City slang,
you and I, stubborn, long-suffering long distance lovers,
has it been three years already, you on your side of this border,
me on mine?

I saw the simple solution to making teleportation work.
A scientist could reduce that action to equations of force,
friction, plotting paths with trigonometry,
to jump, to run, to breathe.

… loves cats, genealogy, and Elvis,
would you “Love Me Tender”…
loves espresso, discreet tattoos, plays an unsettling mortician,
whispering death has a design,
the scene is half tongue-in.

Early on, we played with reckless abandon.
That’s what we have to do in the second half.
We haven’t reached our potential yet, he said,
half a second ago.

Sure, somebody can read
the telescope manual, type in a number,
over half a million photos, fast-streaming hardcoresex videos.
Where is the exit, groove merchant… night
and day, a matter of intensity.

It’s been fun.

12. Circle of Fourths 
  

Begin with private circles, an enclosed or surrounded space,
isolated, everything in close proximity,
sacred boundaries about me, fewer and fewer climbing
up with me higher.

The work is an inspiration for the shape of the mouth,
the simultaneous telling of stories never an issue.
No one really understood the words anyway—
droney, modal counterpoint,
a notebook he gave his wife
filled with her favourite pieces of music,
icy jabs on the piano, six violins and magnetic tape, the backing vocals
in bold font highlights three quarters water.

The head in profile, the eyes,
light blue circles in the centres,
the background is supposed to be dark blue,
the window stained orange and yellow.
I forgot to say my body is scrunched up in the right margin.

I should have been more specific, lilting mordents,
the flourishing turn figures enhancing
fluid legato passages,
from the raked stalls to the stage, collapsing the spiral,
everywhere irrational, transcendental.

Here’s what I learned. Near the edge of the paper
history repeats itself. Everything is outlined in black.