DESOLATION ANGELS AND OTHERS

INSECT PORTRAITS

DESOLATION ANGELS

The clouds open and for a moment,

Form a circle in the sky.  One could

See angels moving within this circle.

Tall and pale, they are towers,

Leaning into each other and moving

Their giant wings slowly, as in breathing.

I dropped the car into a lower gear,

Swerving to avoid the back of a semi

As it exploded the road, caught up in a

Frenzy of delivery.  The sky was all a gold,

A blue hole revealing a churning from

Heaven to Earth.  Highway 80 West,

Aflame with the eccentricities of the early

Evening.  An endless stream of vehicles

Up and down the interstate, a Jacob’s

Ladder where we are all angels.

The spinning of the clouds moves,

Recedes as clouds change shape

Again.  I see Sacramento in the 

Distance, stringing its night lights, 

Claiming the horizon.  There, on

The edge of the night, it becomes

A remarkable presence.  I begin to

Think that perhaps the angels dwell

There, a place of sacrament.  A blue

Camero without lights on, nearly clips

My pickup as it slides across three lanes.

Its license plate reads HLY GHST.

PATCHEN AT THE BAR

There they were.

There must have been

A couple of hundred of them.

Clear balloons floating

Across the road.

Each with a lizard inside of it.

They were the breeze

For ten minutes, then

Drifted out of sight.

Talking to Jody

At the bar, he said,

“They’re going to make

A series out of that,

You know.  You never

Know what you’ll see.

Three persons walked

Into the bar and sat down.

One of them was Kenneth Patchen.

“How’s everything today?”, he said.

MORE INSECT PORTRAITS 

A STORY IN STANZAS

 Giant Anteater

Giant Anteater

Certainly one of the most incredible large animals on the planet.

It looks as if were created by magic.

Here is a poem of mine that invents the history of an object.

A STORY IN STANZAS

Headline: “A crystal box filled with music. c. 1000 a.d.”

The sound would be lost

At once were the box opened.

It is impossible to record the music.

It seems to create an empathy

In the listener as a Paraclete would.

For each listener, called ‘voicers’

By those who study this event,

The experience of the music

Is significantly different.

This is known:  The music

Is always melodic, memorably

So.  Rhythm is patterned.

Certain passages repeat themselves,

Yet, this is extremely rare.

Oftentimes the music generates

Usually abstract visual information,

But also occasional narrative, as in myth.

Animals, from insects to birds,

Mammals, reptiles, amphibians, seem

To hear these sounds with ease.

They oftentimes pay long attention to

The sound.  all have been seen moving

To the rhythms seemingly generated by it.

Some researchers believe particular

Mating behaviors in many species

Have been initiated or changed by

Exposure to this music.  Much more

Research is necessary to prove this.

It is said that people who have encountered

This phenomena have recorded their names

In a document upon doing so.  This document

While testified to, has never been verified.

The box has moved frequently

Since its discovery.  It is liable to appear

Almost anywhere.  It has been seen and

Heard off the Australian Great Barrier Reef

As well as in the Himalayas and the jungles of

Peru, Southeast Asia and South America.

No one knows how the box comes to

Move or where it may appear.

Its appearance has always had the quality

Of a mystical event about it.

In the past seventy years it has been seen

Very infrequently and very briefly.

One other box was known and was opened.

It shattered immediately and caused great

Disturbances in the Earth’s

Magnetic fields and impressive light patterns

In the ion layers of the atmosphere.

Its existence is usually denied except

In poetry and certain fairy tales.

If you encounter this box contact

Creatures that sing or listen to

Recreate your own experience

That others may know these songs.

Pigeons is a coop. Herald, California

D.R. Wagner

Dancing with the fish.

D.R. Wagner