Manhattan

Manhattan

Blackened hands tear apart packets
Of sugar before heavy fists knock
It from your hands and onto the ground
Like a sprinkling of cocaine dust that
The addict will follow, a drug crazed
Hansel and Gretel on the trail of the
Next dealer. The tongue is incinerated
At the factory where everyone’s dreams
Turn into ashes. Under the highways
Rusting arches a bum lights the cars
On fire for warmth and has a dialogue
With the engine parts, the leaking
Burning gasoline, seagulls overheard
Preparing to scavenge what is left
Of you when injuries bludgeon and
You can no longer hail passing cars.
Giant monarch butterflies are listening
To your ghost stories hanging off the edge
Of rusted garbage cans as your various
Homeless brethren congregate and are
Reminded that there was something before
This, perhaps, entirely different: librarians,
Street vendors, hustlers who tire of the chase,
Warning the night of its inertias, no more retaliation
Or parts in disrepair placed on the disabled list
Where before there were suits and briefcases,
Secretaries, who knew where and when you
Were traveling, not necessarily when you’d be
Returning, or if you were dead or alive until
There was no sign of you or no calls from the
Other side of the concrete island

by Micah Zevin 2009

one of the poems read at my recent Kiva Cafe Reading
see a post below for the video link.

Micah Zevin reading at the Kiva Cafe November 5

This link below is footage of me and a Mr. Mills reading at the Kiva Cafe, along with other poets, on November 5th, 2009 at 8p.m...Poems associated with the reading will soon be posted on this site. So enjoy everyone....

hi ho!
MZ


http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=176622788098&saved#/video/video.php?v=176622788098&ref=mf

At The Laundromat

At the Laundromat

As you swirl around
Pacing the hours on
Calloused feet
The temple serves hot
Fudged ice-cream sundaes
Savor, become a glutton to
Its gut wrenching punishments
This life burgeons your vocabulary
Like yeast rising
Into baked bread
You must go forward
Do not leak bullshit
Onto the suede carpet
Put it in a glass jar, extra grease
Skimmed from soup pot tops
To be used later
And stew

by Micah Zevin 2009

The Video Version of this poem can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1F_KdHkUG4

The Drywall Situation

The Drywall Situation

Poisonous vespers intrude on camouflaged
Skin layers cracking backwards as if ready to peel
Not constructed for an onslaught of callousness
Or decay at humans doing a job on each other,
Contracted out, conjuring illusions of separation,
They carry crickets on their shoulders
For the remainder of the night as mists deterioration
Seals your fate; and it’s so easy to step all over your centipede self
As you are pummeling, stifling and choking me
I smoke you early every morning as you drone some
Slick pasty advice, not actually advice but a negotiation for a raise
Spreading diseased clouds out of new windows onto your horizon

By Micah Zevin 2009

See the VIDEO version of This Poem at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB3w6IAYYiY

Modern Times

Modern Times

Our foods bombastic displays
Are being processed indiscreetly
Again, against our palates
Sticky silly putty potions
Gelatinous lumps coalescing
Into our split personalities
Supposed identities
Poisonous arrays of reaction
At the counter-reaction terminus
We shop at trampled-upon
Media frenzies, laid-to-rest sunny-
Side-down over HDTV’s, bulk
Toilet paper cereal sales
The false cover of saving ourselves
From the dollar’s demagoguery
Drowned terrorists, consumers,
Will pack together like queued
Up jackrabbits to purchase
What they think is required
Of them to live outside tainted
Fingers, obsessed by touch
Screen music boxes searching,
Listening only to what shuffles
Its random rambling odes into
Our waxen ears
Everything in front of us has been
Manipulated

by Micah Zevin 2009

Check out the Video version of this poem at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTAHt8BOodA
Thx MZ

The Altar (A Times Square Poetic Affair)

The Altar

And the sky will grow dark but not go out
The omnipresent neon signs
That never switches off, extinguishes
Or exits in this carnival of skyscraper mirrors, fried foods
Fast ecstasies, jumbo TVs, they advertise the world
Endless crowds and their information
Tight wire act texting spellbound myths into
The electronic divide
At celebrations ball, multicolored, multidimensional
Instruments no longer line up for the latest Broadway hits
YouTube, Facebook video hi-jinks
Forever leaving a trail on the web
Of not so silent tongues ready to scream
At Times Square, where once a year
Everyone’s voice is heard…

By Micah Zevin 2009

(Christmas) Nightmare of the odd variety...

(Christmas) Nightmare
The Teddy Bear ornament with three heads
is staring at me with its contented plaster smile
like I am a bowl of oatmeal and it is going
to steal me away to its cave, no!, not for a cup of
egg nog, but to gnaw on my chewy bones by an
open fire, and share me with the bear cubs
who will silence my screams and bury
my bones with my memories,
under a large pine tree
somewhere off the highway...

by Micah Zevin (2009)