by RC James
Nexus (for Neruda)
a sun-sprawled,
ambling
Sunday,
I see him
and his wife
speak to families
on the sidewalk;
each encounter
ends in laughter.
His surreal,
erotic lines,
intricate
as opalescent shells’
inner curves,
run
through
susshing,
booming,
froth-tossing
waves.
And always,
the boats;
a solitary fisherman
untangles lines,
as black crosses
of trawlers
further out,
wait on
elusive
schools.
Down a side street
kids hop-scotch,
dogs bark,
worry
wild-wheeling
bike riders.
She enters
a green house,
he wields pen
toward water,
entertains
complications,
tango-steps
away
from empty-page
demons.
He has the first
stanza,
the next,
shuffles to a halt,
finger to temple,
searches for
the close.
The horizon
gives it
to him;
in that thin line,
lighter
than the broad lay
of water,
he sees
the breath,
the sighs.
***
About the author:
RC James was born in Portsmouth, N.H. 1943. He is a veteran of the culture wars. Member and worker in Resistance groups from the Sixties on up to the present.
Organizer and co-editor of: Flowing Upstream – A Resistance Anthology –by Artists on the Run – soon to be published.
RC grew up in New Hampshire, lived 20 yrs. In the East Village, 20 yrs. – various South American countries.
He now lives in Albuquerque, NM, without a dog or cat, but a very colorful unbroken piñata. Advocate for Universal Cannabis Freedoms.
