a bright sun flower yellow tiger
was at my bedroom door teeth bared ready to pounce
when the child cried “the bear is gonna get me!”
and i completely understood cause i had to really
wake up fast to keep that tiger back
nothing is real especially
tones i heard
a rumbling and thought
the world was coming
to an end
and saw my body blown to bits and crushed under
the rubbish that had been the 100th street apartment
complex my guppies struggled for one last breath
and my turtle head hidden in his shell never
to fuss again at me for not cleaning him
the blinding light started in the 96th street subway
and quickly swept up to my house melting my flesh
into the cactus plant at my bedside and as my hand blended
into a thorn i wondered what it would be like to never
hold anyone again
what never was cannot be
though it engulfed me and i cried
“what always is is not the answer!”
they came from all over the world in planes
in boats and dirigibles
on kites and pollen seeds riding bikes
and horses bare back on electric roller skates
and lionel trains all carrying an instrument to play
or blow and bleat and the sound called all the carnivores
from all over the world the aardwolf and the puma playing
the talking drum even the snow leopard with a long thin
hollowed ice flute came from his himalayan retreat
and all the snakes over ten feet long slithered through
the heavy traffic to my house to play a mass
and through the altos and basses and your condescending
attitude aretha started a low moan
the outline of a face on a picture isn’t really
a face or an image of a face but the idea of an image
of a dream that once was dreamed by some artist
who never knew how much more real is a dream than reality
so julian bond was elected president and rap brown chief
justice of the supreme court and nixon sold himself
on 42nd street for a package of winstons
(with the down home taste) and our man on the moon said
alleluia
and we all raised our right fist in the power sign
and the earth was thrown off course and crashed into the sun
but since we never recognize the sun
we went right on to work in our factories
and offices and laundry mats and record shops
the next morning and only the children
and a few poets knew
that a change had come