The Searchers
Rising with great force,
the coffin like-buoy
shot lengthwise from the sea
I am a ghost, a spirit,
The soul of the searcher
Wandering the millennia
In pursuit of our frail humanity;
Love, once inhaled, slips between
The earth’s dark fingers
To vanish below the ocean wave
That breaks across the shore;
Tumble Tossed I dive
To swallow whole the waters
And return from the vortex
To sing for you beneath blue skies.
Lisa Jain Thompson
September 2008
yesterday and today
The Intruder
She lurked for months in the cardboard shadows
Beneath the interstate highways,
Her dogs sleeping beside her for warmth at night
As she pursued her would-be killers,
A small handful from the Af-Paki mountains
Out wilding on women they thought
Too disrespectful of men.
Old habits die hard
-- And hers are quite sharp –
She could have murdered them in their sleep,
Disappeared them from the world
If she had wished – and she wished --
But she did not, would not,
Even as she blocked their blows
And drove the men running down the street away.
Now, a few years later, the men are gone,
One of the dogs has died from its injuries,
The nights spent sheltered by the stars
Are slowly fading dreams.
I hold her in my arms, wrap her in my heart,
As the enemy stirs her memories,
Wracks her body with pain,
Shatters her feet, bone by bone, until she escapes
Back across the line into my embrace.
The enemies too are gone,
Made well dead by thought and hand;
She is here, beside me in our bed.
Some nights, I count her wounds,
Placing my hand on each of her scars,
Loving each one – and her --
More than I know how to tell
Or a nation will ever let me say.
Lisa Jain Thompson
September 2008
How to tell the difference between a black bear and a grizzly
In light of the rising frequency of human/grizzly bear conflicts, the Alaska Department of Fishing and Gaming is advising hikers, hunters, and fishermen to take extra precautions and keep alert of bears while in the field. The department has posted the following notice:
We advise that outdoorsmen wear noisy little bells on their clothing so as not to startle any bears. We also advise outdoorsmen to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter with a bear. It is also a good idea to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity. Outdoors men should recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear feces. Black bear feces is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear feces has little bells in it and smells like pepper.
for future post-docs
Who’s Jack Kerouac?
I won’t be the last poet you ever read,
But I might be the only one who is working
On being respected and well known
A century or more up the timeline.
I do plan to be read by our progeny on Mars
And have my ragged manuscripts carefully preserved
By generations of westward starfarers,
If not the occasional university scholar.
I’ll make someone a fine paper on century straddling poets
But feel little need to tell them what the centuries are.
A thousand years from now,
If I can have a handful of intact poems
That survive both self-assured book burners
And the passing arbitrators of neo-tastefulness,
I will have succeeded;
Even if my lines are only fragments like Psappho,
I will keep the flame alive
To be picked by those who follow.
Lisa Jain Thompson
September 2008
hurricane watch
Industrial
Canal
The troops are massed,
Waiting for morning
For the battle to begin;
The storm clouds spin,
Sending the bow way
Surging towards
New Orleans.
By this time tomorrow,
The fates will determine
Which threads they must cut;
We will pick up the pieces,
Admit to our errors,
And place the blame appropriately.
Heckuva job, Gustav.
Lisa Jain Thompson
September 2008
How to tell the difference between a black bear and a brown bear
When you see a bear, climb a tree. If the bear climbs the tree and kills you, it's a black bear. If it knocks the tree down and kills you, it's a brown bear.
watching from a safe distance
Canal Street Blues
Sixty-five miles to the west,
The eye of the storm charges inland,
Rushing across the less populated parishes
Away from the watchful media eye.
To the east, at the delta,
Where
Gulf and
Mississippi meet,
N’Orlins waits out the storm surge,
Her fate unknown for hours.
A single cornet, St. James Infirmary,
Winds it way up from
Bourbon Street
Past the waters overtopping the canals,
Holding fast against the ocean’s determined rise.
Lisa Jain Thompson
September 2008
the trouble with being human
December
December, when it comes.
Will find me here, pen in hand,
Trying to weather out one last storm
Before the world grows weary
And my eyes too weak to speak.
I have no fears, only regrets
For loved ones I have not seen,
Voices from the past, already dead,
People I wish I had thanked
Before this all comes to an end.
I already know that December
Is arriving too soon to finish
Everything I would, if I had my if’n’s,
To know and love you so much earlier,
With time enough to start this all again.
Lisa Jain Thompson
September 2008
Bear Protection
When my friend moved to Alaska, his dad decided to buy a gun in order to defend himself against bears. Going to the gun shop, he looked at a number of handguns, .357, .45, revolver, automatic. He was overwhelmed with the choices and not sure which was the most appropriate for the task, so he asked the man behind the counter which would be the best bear protection. The guy selects a .357 revolver and suggests that it would be the best, but that it should be modified by grinding the front sight off the barrel.
Friend's dad asks, "Is that so I can get it out of the holster faster?"
"No," replies the salesman, "that's so it doesn't hurt so much when the bear shoves it up your ass."
observations
Footprints in the
Forest
Summer falls away,
Chasing the hurricanes
Along the coastlines
While Giordano Bruno
Philosophizes in the courtyard.
Heavy metal pumps
Through the iPod speakers
Of the Buddhist monks
Marching, orange in orange,
Through the streets.
God is in his rec room,
Screening his calls,
Avoiding the collectors,
As he carefully sets up
His HD wall set.
Lisa Jain Thompson
September 2008
birds and bees
The Limit of Expectation
Men with their backpacks,
Carrying their manly stuff.
Wearing their dress shirts
And neck penises as they
Double time up the escalator;
Men careful to not completely
Knock the women over the edge,
Trying, with the best intentions,
To minimize the impact if the women
Stay all scrunched down along the right.
Lisa Jain Thompson
September 2008
Two grizzlies where eating a clown.
One said to the other
"does this taste funny to you?"
blasphemous possibility
After
Midnight
I would bed me down the Messiah,
Take Jesus violently in my bed,
Then ask if I was as good as Magdalene
Or was Mary the best he has had.
The Savior’s bedpost must be notched full up,
A nice Jewish Rabbi like that,
His sperm would fill my soul and body,
Sanctifying my womb as his own.
Rolling with my darlin’, rolling with my baby,
I’d walk the streets until the sun comes down
To be rolling in my sweet baby's arms
Your Daddy was a carpenter
Your Momma was a virgin
I’m just your poet girl
Rolling in your arms.
Wild birds circle above our heads,
Lilies bloom in the fields around us,
I’m on my back, looking up at heaven,
You only have eyes for me.
Rolling with my darlin’, rolling with my baby,
I’d walk the earth ‘til the stars have fallen
To be rolling in my sweet baby's arms
I’ll lay around this shack
‘Til my sweet lover’s back,
And I’m rolling in his arms again,
Jesus, but he was good in bed.
Lisa Jain Thompson
September 2008
