Travelling Boatswain - Pete Gioconda

Travelling boatswain
completely at liberty,
clothed in pins
and reaching out for things.

I’m in detailed eroticism,
the feeling I lost before.

Fleas and lizards crawl out,
babies and chickens glisten,
a warble is heard
and the wind grows afeard.

Next thing I hear
back before the storm beckons:
“Let me in on a thin string
and cover me with kisses.”

Sounding like ecstasy,
seeming like anything ~
the inner zone is wanton
and poor subject for true release
this side of Eden.

And on top of all that,
a carnage camera that shuts its gate
like a dungeon floor,
broken back to bare essence
and pleading its position . . .

— Not real enough,
not at all sensual.

Come, let me brave and feel through
and brave you know what,
so as to allow my blood to trot,
and new eagerness to be bought
at the price of letting me go.

I’m on a trample to the stars,
bless me as you go.
My pockets are holy
and all the rest is flesh.
(By “pockets” I mean vessels
for all I should pray to have,
on a journey where the right
things count.)

I can’t hide my disappointment!
I’ve filled in my heads
shovels of incitement
and clemency from reason,
seeking to live in liquid again,
where the threads I step
weave me round a map ~
with threads of the finest gold
in the only form that matters:
uncatchable miners to the stars.

The next step is less tortuous
and happens as a matter of course.

Words take their place
one after the other
and simple arithmetic suffice
to show a throw of dice
where sand dunes clatter,
and eagles dare, and nothing
was delivered.

As time slowly turns around
the clock of light backfires
the symphony gathers
momentum.

Everything is broken
but what am I looking for?
I fit the jigsaw
and drink some more
limelight
in my little dreamy hollow.

Then comes the oblivious feeling,
a blissful belief in being.
Words speak for themselves.
D’you expect something more?

The way the breaths lead on
and paths keep beating ~
days blend into each another
and still I keep fishing . . .
Don’t know what I will end up eating!