A.J. Kaufmann - Patricia (Cosmic Joke Edit)

"...and the coat walked alone" (New poem, 2022/01/05)

behold
I don't feel like trapped, she said
I feel liberated
through you and art and music
it's love? I'm not sure
but it's close to feeling...

...Cream, and I feel
fine
in the current of MIDI solos
spider guitars
their webs of noise

there are cups filled with wine and coffee
there are voices in the morning
dew and snow and frozen leaves
behold
the dream zone

in the flesh
there are terrible news
just turn the TV on
you'd be surprised
by daily doses of terror

so you're lucky
in your little houses
and I'm lucky
in mine
to have something to eat
and enough to pay the rent

the landlady's nice
she even tolerates your music

I feel, she said, obliged to space
and nothing else
in the full spectrum of liberation
through books
and films
which aren't liberation
just someone else's fascinations
imposed on us

Beware! She said to invisible flowers
death will pick you up

Stop! She said to invisible horses
...and the coat walked alone

"One Day I Will Visit Italy" (New poem, 2022/01/03)

In my dreams I am in Italy
somewhere on a tiny island
in a small garden
in a private gallery

I listen to new music
admire the paintings
drink Rosa wine
observe the dew
on my guitar strings

in my dreams I am a different person
what shows through in my art
is brute
and incomplete
there are many fragments
that make no sense to me
and so is my life
those tiny fragments
aren't an island
or gallery
or garden

they are asylums
war
death
and terror and noise

I wish I could see the world through my woman's eyes
but she's got religion
where I only have being

existence as an act of rebellion
as some famous writer said
doesn't turn me on anymore

I am sad, in my dreams
where I am a different being
where I have religion through my woman's eyes
and my woman
actually exists

here I only have lovers
changing year after year
month after month
week/week, day/day

I only have tiny fragments
to collect pieces from
but one day I will visit Italy