Alan Britt
3 poems
**
Incognito
Over the very long haul,
remember that all serendipitous
events fall apart.
It’s inevitable.
As Blake said,
or Baudelaire,
or Lorca,
(who knows),
you could just as easily mistake an orchid
for a switchblade.
You could even,
with proper cultivation,
bomb-sniffing dogs, notwithstanding,
survive comfortably well into
the next millennium
fully incognito.
**
Grace of Gods
It only appears primitive
because
traditional values
herd our youth
into
Burger Kings
and Pizza Huts,
clogging their arteries
profoundly
as they search
for the ideal American family.
Flat teeth chewing cuds
in Chicago stockyards at frosty 4 AM
also explore innocence
but sadly must await validation
for their lives that involve a nagging grief
they never seem to get paid for,
and which, unfortunately, includes
the ritual slaughter
of those living
just outside
the grace of gods.
**
Shred of Evidence
I’m prepared to die singing.
You might think
I’d be better off saving my breath
for the crapshoot of the millennium
that’ll never happen.
But you gotta understand,
lobbyists breathe heavily on loaded dice
before slinging them through the halls of Congress,
or History, as it’s sometimes called.
Somewhere in the Yellowstone Mountains
lives a wolf,
a mythical,
humble wolf,
part Republican
part Socialist,
but a wolf,
nonetheless.
This wolf gnaws on the leg bone
of hope,
our final shred
of evidence.
**
return to sawbuck 1.9
**
Alan Britt teaches English/Creative Writing at Towson University. His recent books are Vermilion (2006), Infinite Days (2003), Amnesia Tango (1998) and Bodies of Lightning (1995). The Poetry Library -- providing a free access digital library of 20th & 21st century English poetry magazines with the aim of preserving them for the future -- has included Britt’s work published in Fire (UK) in their project. Britt recently served as Panel Chair for Poetry Studies & Creative Poetry for the PCA/ACA Conference 2007 in Boston and will chair the panel again for the PCA/ACA Conference 2008 in San Francisco. Alan lives in Reisterstown, Maryland with his wife, daughter, two Bouviers des Flandres, and two formerly feral cats.
**
Incognito
Over the very long haul,
remember that all serendipitous
events fall apart.
It’s inevitable.
As Blake said,
or Baudelaire,
or Lorca,
(who knows),
you could just as easily mistake an orchid
for a switchblade.
You could even,
with proper cultivation,
bomb-sniffing dogs, notwithstanding,
survive comfortably well into
the next millennium
fully incognito.
**
Grace of Gods
It only appears primitive
because
traditional values
herd our youth
into
Burger Kings
and Pizza Huts,
clogging their arteries
profoundly
as they search
for the ideal American family.
Flat teeth chewing cuds
in Chicago stockyards at frosty 4 AM
also explore innocence
but sadly must await validation
for their lives that involve a nagging grief
they never seem to get paid for,
and which, unfortunately, includes
the ritual slaughter
of those living
just outside
the grace of gods.
**
Shred of Evidence
I’m prepared to die singing.
You might think
I’d be better off saving my breath
for the crapshoot of the millennium
that’ll never happen.
But you gotta understand,
lobbyists breathe heavily on loaded dice
before slinging them through the halls of Congress,
or History, as it’s sometimes called.
Somewhere in the Yellowstone Mountains
lives a wolf,
a mythical,
humble wolf,
part Republican
part Socialist,
but a wolf,
nonetheless.
This wolf gnaws on the leg bone
of hope,
our final shred
of evidence.
**
return to sawbuck 1.9
**
Alan Britt teaches English/Creative Writing at Towson University. His recent books are Vermilion (2006), Infinite Days (2003), Amnesia Tango (1998) and Bodies of Lightning (1995). The Poetry Library -- providing a free access digital library of 20th & 21st century English poetry magazines with the aim of preserving them for the future -- has included Britt’s work published in Fire (UK) in their project. Britt recently served as Panel Chair for Poetry Studies & Creative Poetry for the PCA/ACA Conference 2007 in Boston and will chair the panel again for the PCA/ACA Conference 2008 in San Francisco. Alan lives in Reisterstown, Maryland with his wife, daughter, two Bouviers des Flandres, and two formerly feral cats.
