In the Drear Light of Zoo
I see my shadow
Elongated
Etiolated, uprooted
And high
Plugged into the miracle
Of electricity
I buzz harmonies
Of post-bop Kabala
The Caliban of a soul I have
Crouches in hiding
In the drear light of zoo
I see Ginsbergian Angels
Kerouacian slipsters
Drunk on the wine of egoism and selflessness
And Clifford Brown blows his horn
Against the brick and the stone of Manhattan
And I, in a Montreal basement, contemplate, emulate
The sonic hieroglyphs
In hope of ascending
To the godliness I have been denied
In the drear light of zoo
All will come to be
And the glowing revelations
Will flood the mind
Like an instantaneous
Nuclear flash
And you will be transported
In imaginary boxcars, boxcars, boxcars
To far away fields
Where beauty never fades
And be eaten by the alligators of forgiveness.
Transcontinental metaphysical connections will dissolve
Like cotton candy in a child’s hands on a holiday in July
The midsummer madness, like a wise elephant parading the street and everyone
Cheering, the clouds, the sky for showing up
And the sun that shines like stage lights shimmering off a saxophone returns you to prayer
What Dreams I Have of You Tonight Walt Disney
What dreams I have of you tonight Walt Disney
A mouse from which emerged a man
Whose love was
at first the plastic squeak
of a two-cent toy.
Whose lines first ran mute
in black and white
then in sonorous technicolour
Whose affinities were with the underdog
until that underdog
built shopping paradises
all over the land
established band-name
recognition, set up fan
club, theme song
and before long the myth full-blown
spread the word of enterprise
the veneer of imagination
What dreams I have of you tonight Walt Disney
Walt? Can you hear me?
Don’t you know we’re depending on you to return
to walk upon muddy waters
to save us from the blues?
Come down from your cartoon cross
jump out of the freeze-frame
into the eternal rerun.
Let towers fall in Babylon
let the airwaves jam
let the shopping malls
crumble.
Walt Disney. Lonely old money-grubber.
Wake us from our supermarket nightmare.
