Leaving Saturn

Sun Ra & His Year 2000 Myth Science Arkestra
at Grendel's Lair Cabaret, 1986

Skyrocketed—
My eyes dilate old
Copper pennies.
Effortlessly, I play
              *
Manifesto of the One
Stringed Harp. Only
This time I'm washed
Ashore, ship-wrecked
              *
In Birmingham.
My black porcelain
Fingers, my sole
Possession. So I
              *
Hammer out
Equations for
A New Thing.
Ogommetelli,
              *
Ovid & Homer
Behind me, I toss
Apple peelings in
The air & half-hear
              *
Brush strokes, the up
Kick of autumn
Leaves, the Arkestra
Laying down for
              *
New dimensions.
I could be at Berkeley
Teaching a course—
Fixin's: How to Dress
              *
Myth or Generations:
Spaceships in Harlem.
Instead, vibes from Chi-
Town, must be Fletcher's
              *
Big Band Music—oh,
My brother, the wind—
& know this life is
Only a circus. I'm
              *
Brushed aside: a naif,
A charlatan, too avant
Garde. Satellite music for
A futuristic tent, says
              *
One critic. Heartbreak
In outer space, says
Another,— lunar
Dust on the brain.
              *
I head to NewYork.
NewYork loves
A spectacle: wet pain
Of cement, sweet
              *
Scent of gulls swirling
Between skyscrapers
So tall, looks like war.
If what I'm told is true
              *
Mars is dying, it's after
The end of the world.
So, here I am,
In Philadelphia,
              *
Death's headquarters,
Here to save the cosmos,
Here to dance in a bed
Of living gravestones.