Two Poems, One Drawing

for Mehul Tank

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Thought Has Perpendicularity

Thought has perpendicularity:

Its branches sprout right-angled off the tree –

Dimensions, far from meshing, barely touch –

No opposites attract, they merely brush

Each other, passing, blind to spheres if they are lines,

Curving ribs insensible of rising spines.

And yet a torso, nerves and muscles form

And breathing lungs and flowing blood-lines warm

The whole, as if it weren’t made of warring parts.

The metaphoric organs we call hearts

Are not explained by anything I see.

They seem content to be Impossibility.

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Saturnian Intent: The That of That

I don’t know why she’s here, do you?

I mean, if somehow there had been slew

of kinky fashionistas coming through

she might have thought that was her cue

to do so too. But I’ve as much to do

with fashion as the planet Saturn has with flu.

Does Saturn have to do with flu?

Does Saturn cause the flu? Oh dear.

Saturn’s the prime mover here.

That was not mere random queer

associative gaffe. That was a clear

Saturnian intent to penetrate our sphere

to give us flu. Is she the Saturnine premiere

politico? Has that to do with why she’s here?

“Please

stop

all

that

rhyming!

It’s

ruining

my

timing.”

Who said that?

She said that!

She’s making me say that.

I can’t stop staying that!

Out, damned that!

That is the that

of that.

.