Poetica Magazine

On the meeting of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai and Woody Guthrie

Almost Over.

You know its almost over

"Hell no! You never know!"

.

“That's it, It's done"

We're gone?

He and them

.

Even you and, excuse me,

The dog.

They're still here!

.

They're still around!

Still breathing!

Not

.

Breathing

Still.

Yelping

.

Is of no avail.

Time is finally up.

GAME OVER

.

with all the alarm

Involved with that final change.

As Harold Bloom has said

.

Awaits us all.

.

.

.

P.S

.

On language, the imagination and music that bewitches

.

I had to choose between

Alarm and alacrity

As a word you thought existed was denied

Its

life

By melingo and Webster too

.

Are we just like

That unborn word?

That knows no terror?

Real or imagined.

Near the lake

Or on the street

.

In a morning

Or at night

At any time

Terror strikes.

A child on the way to the store

For an ice-cream cone

.

But like alarm

And alacrity

Neighbors in the dictionary

Yet strange and different from

Each other

Passing by on the street

.

Totally unaware &

Tone deaf to the other

They did eventually bump

In to each other

And sat outside the mall

Sipping coffee and watching

.

The people go by

.