Madman Songs
By Bert Meyers
1
People go home
to rest in vaults
curtains soothe their faults
bright windows show their money
I hated home
it caused me pain
cloudy days
and evenings came
I leaned against
the iron rain
2
Someone held me there was harm
now each word’s an alarm
the man who looks so calm
will turn into a bomb
Woman daughter son
I wake up and put them on
they hide me from the law
My desire’s a blade of grass
I trample as I pass
Fear me what I hate will fall
3
In summer small cones
of dirt beside a fence
erupt with the weddings
of the ants
A moth staggers from a shrub
People turn their sprinklers on
to watch the water girls
dance on their lawn
I don’t go out
until they’ve all gone in
They might come near
with large damp wings
love and other things
4
When I don’t sleep
the crickets weep
When I say
My life will pass
they scrape the dark glass
When the wall
begins to fall
where I strain
they file the chain
When I rise
I wear an orange shirt
A green woman
is rinsing her skirt
She imagines me
5
David’s gone Goliath’s strong
flocks of pebbles bleat
their brittle cries of light
fade where the leaves lie
dry harps near a stream
Jacob warmed a rock
the rock and Jacob dreamed
I’m burning I’m alone
everyone’s a stone
I break my feelings on
6
I sat on the sidewalk
with my own box of chalk
and all day long I made
the whole world by myself
That’s not the world they said
Then I rose at dawn
I put a label on
it wore me out by noon
All day I swung a brush
to see the buildings bloom
Just painting on a wall
won’t change a man at all
or make the stone turn blue
So I sat down once more
What else could I do
7
People go home
Twilight’s a glass
through which they pass
The carver calms
his arm and leaves
his passion in the grain
The one who ran
runs back again
We live in pain
The moon’s an aspirin
Notes:
“Madman Songs” was originally published in The Dark Birds (Double Day and Company, 1968) and is reprinted with permission of Daniel Meyers. For more information about Bert Meyers, please visit bertmeyers.com
This poem is part of the portfolio “Bert Meyers: A Gardener in Paradise.” Read the rest of the portfolio in the January 2023 issue of Poetry.
Source:
Poetry
(January 2023)
