N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 3 : S p e c i a l E d i t i o n

L o n g P o e m M a s t e r p i e c e s o f t h e P o s t b e a t s

RON RODRIGUEZ

Crackbrained

 
 
I wake up, he glass
 
 
Fallen back stiffly
 
Chair
 
Such raptures
 
Muffled towel
 
Acts of Parliament 
 
Eccentric arrivals
 
False humility
 
Sweat shops
 
Rubbed nose
 
Upright carriage
 
Love of approbation
 
Income fingers
 
Great Memorial
 
River ago
 
She only grieved for me
 
.
 
Face
 
 
Hard clatter of horses hoofs
 
Power of speech
 
She was weak
 
Document
 
Adamantine Merkins
 
Often now
 
Dead of night
 
Chariot
 
Smelt my head
 
As if in love,
 
Neck-kerchief waved
 
.
 
No Cancel to Freezer Dunghill
 
 
Saviour wound prepared
 
Pain kitchen upstairs
 
Yellow face nightcap
 
Peoples mistakes hunger
 
Elephant parlor open
 
.
 
Mates
 
 
Frozen-out old gardeners
 
Boiling gipsy-fashion
 
Course of chequered existence
 
Villainy is the matter
 
.
 
The Market
 
 
Market-place
 
Beds in the night
 
Picture on the lid
 
I kept to myself
 
The bell rang
 
Model of sternness
 
Tumbling long hair
 
Conceptions of art
 
Traced to an apprehension
 
Hand upon the hand he put before his face
 
.
 
Time came 
 
 
She glided 
 
Mystery of the partner
 
I was night
 
She was wild 
 
She ran along
 
Began to peel
 
Last attempt 
 
To make any change
 

[Used by permission of the author.]

Ron Rodriguez, Puerto Rican poet, studied with Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Anne Waldman at Naropa Institute. He is the author of The Captains That Dogs Aren't (Washington Writers Publishing House). He played in the band Repulsion for Reptiles, which featured an avant-garde jazz-industrial noise hybrid with Spanish lyrics. Rodriguez has translated the works of Luis Pales Matos and Miguel Unamuno among others. Currently, he is a faceless bureaucrat for the federal government.