for Martin Booth, 1944-2004, in memoriam

Usak a western town in Anatolia, Turkey,
famed for carpets goldyellows, orangereds, greens
commanded by medallion and star motifs—is known
while Kars in the northeast nearer to Tiflis (Tbilisi)
in Georgia is the city of Snow in Orhan Pamuk's
seventh novel translated into English by Maureen Freely
his friend since childhood. In one country there are
hives of voices soaring and dwindling into insanity.
Fortitude is a sword. Perseverance a death rattle.
People are like flowers losing their high coloring and
shrink, stink still alive writhing spreading an export
of simple words: gas piss shit shout. The earth is dying
and its peoples are ravening themselves for prey.
Somethings once we believe were once done right.
Tomorrow no longer wise adventure becomes pursuit.
Separation, sacrifice, revenge raddled mystic, prophet.
Usak a town in western Anatolia, Turkey,
famed for carpets has a hive of voices soaring, falling
as a sword, a death rattle. Flowers and people fester
because an epidemic is sweeping over the earth
ravening the rich who are rich because the poor are poor
seeing a revenge for wrongs and death rattle for all.
Washed in blood of lambs, saturated in pollutions
Politicians, priests are the bright colored dying leaves.

 

Copyright © Edward Mycue, 2005.

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Edward Mycue lives in California. He was born in Niagara Falls, New York, raised in Texas from age 11, and attended Arlington State University and North Texas State University. Subsequent activities include: peace corps teacher in Ghana, and teacher of American Literature at International People's College (Elsinore, Denmark). He now lives on the West Coast of the USA. His books include Because We Speak the Same Language (Spectacular Diseases, Peterborough, 1994), and The San Francisco Poems (Spectacular Diseases, forthcoming).