am strand hebdo: highway2/behind th 8ball revisited
(1) here is th moonless midweek fear wd shut me up, down
* it’s precisely another wednesday when i finally make it out to vega baja. dr.dad has decided he can use primer for th whole paint job he’s decided to do by himself: except for th flaky, transparent new coat on th walls, th beach house looks
pretty
much like i left it th first week of october, down to th rolled-up slat
curtains
standing on end in th stairs as i go up to th second floor- not to mention
th proppd-up panels that fail to close up th gap left by th blown-out
picture
window upstairs, & th consequent puddles of water on th floor…
this time, th moon aches towards fullness, but heavy weather keeps clouds running their curtains across its face…close, wind-driven rain falls in swirling sheets…
(5?) (bare strip of road growing car dealerships for supper)
* sandwiched between a bland euro-ballad by a second-generation heartthrob sporting th ‘iglesias’ family brand name & a slickd-up production of authentic
‘música jíbara’
puertorriqueña which still only gets on commercial radio playlists for th
christmas
season, alanis morrissette chants her wildly, succesfully grateful
self-help slogans…
here she is too, inescapably following me across th music industry’s heavy
rotation lock
on th not-so-new international world order airwaves…all th way from nyc &
th capitals
of mass media culture to this barely glorified little truck-stop off th
highway
th army corps of engineers built along th north coast on th eve (-or in th waning days?) of WW2 for th further militarization of th island…
(2) th liquor whisper, mumbling to itself
* my inner soundtrack as i wait for my octopus salad runs more to joni mitchell- ‘it was a rainy night/we took a taxi to yr mother’s home…
you sat up all th night & watched me/to see/who in th world i might be…’
* or even ‘toto’- ‘ i bless th rains down in africa…’
’some people live their dreams/some people close their eyes/some people’s destiny/passes by…as soon as forever is through/ i’ll be over you..’
(4) to weed-whacker wake-up posse razing fragile saplings
(*3) a maze of daydream bulletins finds me home abuzz
* i return to caparra to find cabletv has taken dr.dad @ his word &
discontinued service-
seems he calld to complain about billing for unprovided service in th
aftermath of hurricane georges- a full month?? i don’t know, dr.d may be
exaggerating…on th other hand, these guys have a monopoly on cable access
in th san juan metro area & they usually get away w/ murder (also known as
‘what th market will bear’) soooo- he ended up telling th sweet,
ingratiating customer rep on th other end of th line to ‘just
fuhgeddaboudid!’ -i’m taking both translating & poetic license here…i
think there’s still an old-fashioned antenna up on
th roof, but i wouldn’t swear to it…waiting for it to dry out to check,
but we’re really getting a full monsoon experience these days…rain hasn’t stoppd in over a week…
(7) (roy haynes snap crackles his way out of boston to my joy)
* wrtu, radio universidad de puerto rico, has changed programming & instead of tuning into an installment of npr’s jazz profiles when i drive home from my meal @ ‘el fogón #2′ sometime after ten in th evening, they’re broadcasting some radio magazine seemingly co-produced by some latino studies program in california, featuring
interviews w/ women writers from puerto rico, who are in guadalajara for th big latin america book fair & find th gender-grouping that seems to have become policy & rule a bewildering irritation…
(6) turn into thelonious joint, cravings washd out & sunk
where is theodore roethke when i need him? in his books i guess… i also miss th copy of ‘patterson’ by william carlos williams that stephen petronio borrowed back in nyc maybe fifteen years ago by now & never returnd… that one & aimé cesaire’s ‘cahier d’un retour au pays natal’ are my models for sustained, book length narratives shifting between prose & poetic form & tone…
(in re.: to th ‘original’ text: th lines were written as presented, th
numbers
posited a possible reordering…)
love,d=(8{>
———– End warded sage ————–