Mongus and Mink and other works by Daniel Kerwick

 

Raised in Rochester, NY, poet and playwright Daniel Kerwick has lived in New Orleans for over twenty years. He is founding editor of Simpatico Poets Press and artistic director of Simpatico Poets Theatre. His work has been presented in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Portland,OR, Denver and other backwaters of North America. Titles include The Orchestra Has Left The Building, Behind Lies The Sugar and You Stand Alongside Desire, which was recently put out by Foothills Publishing.

 

Alley Down the Street

New Orleans is not a grid
does not conform to ninety degree angles

rambles between river
                           and swollen lake

God Bless the Child

alleys are hidden
tread secretly
where light and dark converge
          and disappear

plaster barge-board brick
gossip strewn
            and magnificently dilapitated

                               'nothin' plumb in this town
      yea you right'

her broken shoe
crumpled lottery tickets
gin and juice
echoes of a guitar player named Snooks
a theme with jumbled variations

stirrings vibrantly still
        in the early morning glow

chicory on the tongue
tin cup full of dreams

           enter its voices
           sit among them

whisper toward
                 the light at the end

 

Mongus and Mink
                                  for Paul Pines

 

on tip of tongue
and fingers gesturing
just one of those things

like missing last train
out of Hackensack after
Wenesday night prayer meeting

words mangled but so what
eat that chicken and clutter
in yer muttered room Spooner

Epistrophy dysphonia always
round midnight Skippy

beneath the stuttering underdog
an epitaph

        straight no chaser
        goodbye pork pie hat
        no regrets

Mongus and Mink        shit
ya know where I mean

Blue Distance

 

in the early dawn
steal what you see
what you read on the horizon

don't
      mention
                  symbolism

a child crying in your heart
murder in your lungs

St. Augustine

                       Florida

has nice beaches
horrible tourists

click the camera obscura
panorama in a bowl

how language uses us
a blind reach for a book

                           any book

from the accumulation

direction secured

                     proves displacing

                                    if

determined world questions

                     which compelled

                                   it

no one is going anywhere

magic precarious
                       that protects us

an unreflective fact

invention discredited
by its inventor
                     and her mask

containment rattles
                            the windowpane

perceptions complex
                                 itself

its potential
                                 death

in all its variousness

Attach It to the Earth

not            floating
there are no eyes harder to catch
than the barman
who wishes he was fishing

grain in wood peeks thru the varnish

woman named Sam is moving to Alaska
drinks rye whiskey with her pig's feet

floating eyes move harder
in whitening light
it's time to go home
but no one moves

barley sandwich for breakfast

someone asks
                     why turkish bath
                     massage swedish

bumfuck alliteration
replies the man wearing glasses

reinventing himself in the mirror

Nick Tahoe's never closes
garbage plate $2.99
each moment less future to worry about

attach it to the earth

and get Sam another one