Sandra Simonds
from debris tarot
1.
That is the trail yonder beyond the river
Behind the owl’s neck turn with one arm pointed to the stars and the other toward the
underworld
reclaiming the world walked in sugar and starch the trail infinitely sweet
Magician of forked tongues and the wind is a 3:45 appointment with
A sleigh of crystal ready to take you to your destination if it be [sincere]
I have a realm of sorrows tucked in like a bed sheet at sun up
A sleigh of mirrors and nickels
When the children search for small tadpoles in the Alps
Magician of forward fingers the crystal sleigh pulled up to a frowning gully
Of cosmopolitan mud and wet leaves are:
The empress of daytime
How she holds her wreath of frame board houses
The empress at noon
A white hand on her embroidered dress
A chariot of pines
And slaves
How sweet the empress with her horn
Of bone
Blowing into the Eastern sky
Do you know the Empress holds the keys (of luck?)
Do you know her heresy Heirs High
Plains
Alps bed of Saturn Flowers {a satellite spins} and the sky is a
frequency of percentiles
21.
or pentacles of lust-light-
No not to lay bare the shifted dream of the world’s two batons
(Nicht) judgment is a Red Cross flag at dawn with a blood--
wing and 5 gray men underneath the railroad trilogy
17.
how dare his golden feet to touch !the heavens!
how dare his scarlet tights and pleasant grin
to know his tree to know his blue smock and collar
how dare his white whistle hair
to know his humid lips and curve of yellow skin sockets
here here .wasn’t it time for a ripe apple? Clear water the chest is not
thorough as a botanical garden mid-summer equipped with lens attachments
spandex jumpsuit
moist under-wire bra & sincerity
is a cheek flushed
black cloud
mind the memorandum on the ear drum capitol twirl
ragtag as a hermit better yet
camouflaged as a prince of charms eaten away the core seeds
in the seeing glass city of footprints and chocolate bars a ragtag stranger approach
the bench
in the zoo brain garden the ragtag stranger farewell that city of mine
for the yonder distance a horsefly …saddle up
but I could not emphatic as CLACK little good does the cheap insulation and grid
system these sewers o
city of mine
clearly the dawn hiss
of dew crazed
for water she held out a frying pan said… “drought me nothing”
none has better chance for survival {hold: a twig out over the cliff and} in
thinking
clearly the dawn gold shot of the leper’s sore tongue
and he rivaled no other
that city
Shaken as a beard’s spit my friend sent me letters without
Exception to the fancy of my brain trees growing putrid fruits
Shaken as a finger in that direction of yonder hey westward hey onward hey-ho
A bluegrass
Fiddle
For sunset a banjo player for desert highway you watch
So soon shall I conquer the underworld of traitors and thieves tractors and midnights
Aside
To walk down Broadway ready to pawn the old soul fluids
To walk down Broadway searching for memorabilia of the God-parks
To walk down Broadway with a staff as a forefinger you might regret it
To walk down Broadway compressed as a metaphor of gas
To walk down Broadway ready to pawn your life for a bridge and a gold-tipped
haystack
(I had better)
Putting an end to the spectacle should have spoken of
twilight
To domesticate the horse words like gallop and trot
Wild one as prairie grass
My hands had sores from mites and little tick sufferers who cannot live
On anything but life itself
Addicted to Broadway’s flesh I walked with a
Collapsed eardrum
Of rainwater
Flutes
Dear Mr. Smith,
to shuffle a pack of trick
Cards under a landscape of twenty threes and should
stars be combed from the earth’s fine dirt to find
One glowing
Stone (cold as camphor) in the chest cavity
Your honor I would be honored to
trust your judgment as mine sits impaired as a flashlight
In the blind light of nothings
To have spoken of twilight
amidst the speech nothings of
sound
To have spoken there
As much as here
Just as mud is a guru
of bits and
pieces
leaf bit
wave bit
particle bit nothing bit or be