______________________________________________________________
-- word biscuit --
-- donner & blitzen edition --
12-24-96 - ray heinrich
*
* *
* *
* * * * * * * *
* *
* *
* * *
* * * *
* * * *
* * * *
* * * *
* *
______________________________________________________________
well here it is, the second "very precious" xmas edition of
word biscuit. the first proto-biscuit was baked on 4-4-95
and tastes a bit moldy (but then parts of the last one had a
strangely familiar yeasty taste).
so happy donner and merry blitzen and lusty cupid
and warm huggy-bear comet and may the serene luminance
of rudolf's nose light a clear path for you well into
the new year,
-ray
(and yea, a few of these poems are from last year)
< xmas >
shelves filled
with the beauty
of fresh ornament
the bees knees
and
the trees leaves
and
the twig
of this moment's purpose
breaks under the clock's
second foot
kicking the chimes
dancing
with a chorus
of produce
- -
< made in china >
i'm practicing my Chinese
in a K-Mart
i'm translating labels
as i come to them
and this shirt says
it's made in China
by people who believed in free speech
and made the mistake of saying so
and this pair of pants was
hand-crafted in China
by a woman who mentioned
Tiananmen square
and these socks
were produced in China
by a man who is gay
or maybe he's Christian
my Chinese
really
just isn't that good
and this toy
was assembled in China by someone
it could have been anyone
who lived in Tibet
and this coat for the winter
was made by them all
made by the people
in the factory prisons
and you hope they don't know
but you know that they do
that each man
and each woman
that everyone knows
the US is where
their merchandise goes
- - -
< a good roll >
god sent me an email today:
"so i lied about Jesus
he wasn't really my son
he was a philosopher
just trying
to practice his ideals
the rest
was a story i made up
you see
my religion wasn't going too good
and i had lots of competition
from the other gods
i needed an event
it wouldn't have to be a Woodstock
but i needed something
to get the ball rolling
when here comes this carpenter
who thinks
he's figured out the golden rule
but i think
here's my man
it just took a few rumors
to get him crucified
and then i whispered
a few more stories
in the right ears
and bingo
i had me a thing goin
Zeus was pissed
and the Earth Mother
got her panties in a twist
while I
settled in for a good roll"
- - -
< making cornbread xmas style >
cleaning out the garage
or i wish i was
actually i'm piling some stuff
i don't recognize
on top of some more stuff
that at least
has a familiar color
a green
the color of my first model plane
but it can't be here
in the wrong garage
and the wrong decade
as i knock over a bottle
of some xmas present
from less
than a decade ago
that happens to be sherry
so i put
whatever it was i made space for
down
thereby taking up the space again
and i take the bottle
back
into the kitchen
and open it
and pour it
and drink it
and it's bitter
but it will do
as i set it down
next to the corn meal
the flour
the sugar
the baking powder
the salt
the milk
the eggs
and the olive oil
which i use
instead of bacon fat
and i turn the oven to 425
thinking of how
i was only going to make his flesh tonight
but now
i'll be drinking his blood as well
- - -
< Merry Christmas >
i mean
sure
Christ was born at some other time
and sure
he was an honest worker/philosopher
who said there were no gods
and that we were responsible
for our own actions
and sure
the P.R. people got ahold of it
and turned it all around
BUT
people being people
the true miracle of Christmas appeared:
we figured out how to have fun anyway
Merry Santa Claus
- - -
< don't let santa invoke satan >
i got an email today:
"Don't let Santa invoke Satan,
keep Christ in your Christmas."
(now i'm making up the rest of this poem
but honest, that was real)
now i figure
it must have been miss-delivered
because at xmas when i was ten
i got a green bike
when i'd really asked for a red one
and this was repeated
year after year
and it's not like i didn't
get lots of good stuff
but i never could influence santa at all
so now
if santa gets behind this xmas
and asks his fellow angel satan
for a little help
and puts him in charge of coal and switches
(you just know he'd be good at that)
and you also know that santa's
just not going to listen to me
when i tell him
he shouldn't go around invoking satan
so i guess it's reasonable
to keep christ in xmas
cause if there's any trouble
between santa and satan
christ is the only one i know
who could handle it
- - -
< my holiday wish for writers >
writers can have happy holidays
but they write much better
if they don't
so i'm wishing you
dreadful holidays
ones filled
with the desperate emotions
that you need
well
ok
maybe a few ducks
but besides the ducks and a stray koala bear
that smells like a giant cough drop
because she eats eucalyptus leaves all day
i'm wishing you a wretched and miserable
grouping of holidays
except
of course
for a seven hundred pound carrot cake
and some naked twins
of whatever sex you desire
- - -
< holiday season >
this holiday season started out
as a big celebration
but later these Puritans came along
and burned a few people
and called it
spiritual purity
if you ask me
it wasn't spiritual purity
it was burning a few people
now i don't know about you
but this holiday season
i'm celebrating
- - -
< xmas visit >
your prince of peace framed
with bones and nails
keeps you safe
from the faces in the window
but i am not so good at these things
i can't explain
the pictures of belief
lining your walls
and i will never know your father
or his bones
but i am waiting
watching you secure upon your rock
me swimming the sea listening
to your gracious bells
- - -
< the shadow of heaven >
we must all be
underneath the shadow of heaven
the latticework
that keeps us
from the real void
the unimaginable
but stop and ask me
what i am doing
what is my presumption
to name a poem 'the shadow of heaven'
and i will tell you
the real power of a poet
is the power to use
whatever words are available
and the payment is
as always
to be ignored
and sometimes to be burned
but only the best are burned
the freedom of mediocrity
is sublime and total
and as the smoke rises
you don't need to ask
where the best are
you have only
to lay yourself back
in the shadow of heaven
falling over us all
- - -
< home for the holidays >
bad news oh mister
the shark ate my sister
the one
that you truely adored
and my poor ole mother
as well as my brother
it's sad
but at least i'm not bored
- - -
< blessings of comfort and joy >
blessings of comfort and joy
fall
just where they may
and none of us
no matter how we try
can ever
tell just where
- - -
< christmas blessings >
the warm wood floor of the living room
our parent's living room
when it was ours
sits
some place in our heads
my head
and my sister's head
as she talks to me
long distance from the coast
and dad
our dad
is asking us again
to guess the presents
as he smiles at us
and the tree
rises above us
as we sit on the floor
the warm wood floor
and barely remember
we're on the telephone
talking
of christmas blessings
- - -
_______________________________________________________________
if you know someone (yourself too) who would like to get
word biscuit irregularly, just send me an email saying
something like yes. oh, and all this stuff is copyright
1995 & 1996 by the free state of dogs and ray heinrich.
you have my permission to copy it and post it a reasonable
number of times as long as it doesn't involve charging money
(kinda redundant, after all, it IS poetry), it's not part of
any pro-republican campaign literature, and you include:
"copyright 1995 & 1996 ray heinrich - comments welcome,
send to: ray@scribbledyne.com and i'm not wearing any pants"
END for now
back