I'LL TRY TO FORGET: JARCOO POEMS

I'll try to forget this long night
           of passionate dreams
This long night by the coast of Tantalus
I'll try to forget

I'll try to forget the match
That set this woodland on fire
This fire now dying
Like the last drop of water in a dying well
Like the last drop of milk in a tired breast
Like the last drop of ink in a dying pen

I'll try to forget the shout of my nerves
as they heard your voice
And tell them they read the sing wrong
That the voice was that of Ruth
but the heart that of Dalblair

I'll try to forget your Joys
          and forget my pains
                 forget your knowledge
          and forget my ignorance
                 forget my wisdom
          and forget my folly
                 forget your gains
          and remember my loses no more

The once full ocean has coursed down
          the narrow river
The narrow river into the sight stream
The sighing stream into the hungry sandbank
All now disappearing into my now narrow
           sighing, hungry soul


The night has fallen off its heights
And plunged into the shallow ponds of the frogs
And they are frigging the sun to bed too early
Every note of theirs tell me
            the time and the tears
            the passion and the lyrics
            the line and the lyrics
            the rhymes and the ryhtms
Were all a mountainous heap of waste
But I will make this waste the manure
             with which to plant my tomorrow

The dreams!
Those dreams!

I can see those dreams from afar sinking into
             the noisy horizon where yellow mixes
             with gray and red with black

The dreams!
Our dreams! Or were they mine?

In them we rode on horseback together with
             a million other paired rider wearing crowns
Together we drank nectar from golden cups
Buried sorrow in Rocky Mountains
And dragged time by its tail on way
             to the orchard of flowers


The dreams!
Those dreams!
But now I wish I dreamt no more
For every dream is a dream is a dream of you
And all dream of you are sweet!
Sweet dream full of mad cow and angry masquerades

But I'll learn
I learn to trust and not to trust
I'll learn to trust mirth in lips every lamb
but no the hyena's laughter
I'll learn to trust the warning in every pregnant cloud
but not the tears of the crocodile
I'll learn to trust the twinkle Tony the edge of every star
but not the serpent's smile

Kathy, my Kathy,
Katty I didn't know you were a cat


Frozen I am at the coast of Tantalus
Frozen
Frozen in amazement as toads tumbled out, fire on their tails
Frozen
Frozen as fish drowned and whales begged for blanket
Frozen
Frozen as canoes capsized throwing out cargoes
Frozen
I stood in wonderment until i looked upstream
            and saw you standing,
With honey dripping from your lips into the river,
            and I understand
Your mouth, O Katty, is a museum with many monuments
From the edge of your truthful tongue the planet trips
             to shatter to pieces at your happy feet
Along that slippery edge my pluses have become minuses
             my minuses by millions multiplied
             and the multiples divided up by your many zeroes
             leaving me as empty as Baghdad
             at the dawn of its liberation

You're the American bird up in the sky
And I the Chalke an troop deep in trench
Your the itchy clock and the freedom

Mine the deadly dung and the steep drop
But I'll make it out of this bunker
            through the rough,
            download the fairway,
            into the cup
You would have had your touchdown
But I will have my home run

The lightening in the distance
The thunder at a distance
Thursday raise  on my roof
The tide in my compound
The storm ha blown off the roof of my happiness
             and now the wall sag
Where my heart used to be
I now see a gapping hole
This black hole dug in black man's heart
            by a black women
But I'll mantle what you've dismantled
            and story what you've destroyed
If only a hole dug by a ewe
Can be filled by a range!


I couldn't, Katty,
I couldn't
I couldn't tame the tiger of Taranga
            and make it domestic pet for your feet
I couldn't.
I couldn't pluck the moon from the sky
           and make it a juicy apple for your teeth
I couldn't
I couldn't sink a mine in my palm
           with a tap for liquid gold to run
No, Katty, I couldn't
But I could take hold of the tail of freedom
This glorious freedom of the rat in the trap

We've tunnelled through he tides of planting
We hurry now towards the dawn reaping
But the blouse of your truthful is too loose
For you to run the race aright
The skirt of your lies too tight
For you to cross the Gulf of Guilt

When dream dangle at the edge
           of the trembling eyelids
When the retina sings less to the brain
           than to the widening pupils
When the Melting hearts pumps fear
           into the runny stomach
Then the hour has come, Katty
           the moment of light

Now that the thunder has wilted into
             the tent of echo
Now that sun has walked into
             the womb of the snow
Now that the rain cloud has screened off
             the moon
I hear in the distance
           the euphony of the dawn
           the symphony the dusk
           the cacophony of the dusk
But behind every storm
           there is the sun
And after every rain
           there will be shine
Behind every mountain
           there is a valley
And on every valley
           there is a resting ground
Men May steal the torchlight
But they'll never steal the sun
I'll try to forget