TWICE, TWICE, A LIGHTNING STRUCK, UPON MY GHOST ---by ChiAn In damp Spanish candle stands, In error, in Maya, in fervor, Too eager, too meagre, Relaying the wrong Morse codes, Mistaking 6 for 9 for 6 for wine for pine, Rushing for the reincarnated Atlantis trick exhibition, Drawing sulfur clouds into Nok heads nodding, On the guerilla walls of scornful blunders, The failure of machines, for they do not have emotions, For they do not understand Aretha for rubbish, Vishnu pounding on the peeling door, on the floor, Seven times I bowed to Isis, Nose in muddy alligator paw marks, A viola starfish canopy veiling Ma Rainy, I became AN ant, not the last but the first, Isn't shoe, isn't who, isn't bull, Shit, didn't you know that women couldn't be trusted? Said the cartoon bicycle to the cotton pocket What about men? Are they more independent? Asked the matchbox girl, digging her ears, She heard a robot speak, in Greek, in Mandarin, in orange, Sorry, you have come to the wrong place, please leave, By the tides of yellow spring, splashing blue and wool, One foot on the western hemisphere's migrane frock, The other on the eastern evolving cycle of docks, Empty and vacated, for fear of haunting, The red dressed maiden putting a loop around her neck, Advanced in fashion, advanced in passion, She hung, soft as a southern ceramic vase, Cold as frozen November cucumber pimpernel, Not scarlet, but Scarlet, Running to a young Confucius, Still confused, still refused, By the cobble webbed brook where his sweetheart, Pretending empathy, pretending sympathy, Wiping a skull from her eye, Told him to fuck the truth, duck the wolf, She could not and being victimized, M. Frank, returning a pound of honesty, He turned, spurned as a pecan buttered toad, He hobbled, burned as pollen crossword puzzles, >From the newspaper headline which screams, Louder than amber traffic flashes, Louder than phones that do not sing, Stabbing a stake through his garlic liver, To remember innocence, to forget pain, Mozart's toenail clipper would never be the same, Again, he would promise, Egyptian rings and paradise, Why, why? Why hasn't the sky turned to soot? Why, why? Why hasn't the lie turned to root? Trading beans for a Big Mac, the modern Jack, Out of the Union, can't jump over a moon cake, St. Nicholas and St. Sickles, sharp as razor, Speaking over the 24 hour counter maintenance robber, Holding a rat trap in his hand, shaking and puking, Mr. Bingo crawling out of his shell to find his parrot, Throwing a nickel to the operator, programming poison, Go a way, go a home, go a back, go, go, go, Go to May, go to foam, go to sack, go, go, go, Don't come back, Alice said to her image, At the age of ninety six, when she left America, When she reclaimed Wonderland, it was disenchanted, For being at the wrong place, at the wrong time, Everything had changed, nothing remained constant, So cruel this fate, for it was true what the old willow said, It's easier to find a needle at the bottom of the Pacific, Than it is to win a woman's heart, so I question not, For I'm but a twig, a pig, a gig, a wig, a big Mole upon my relieved throat, upon my ghost, A lightning struck, twice upon my mangrove heart, Twice upon my cracking fingers, twice, twice, They made doves fly under the sunken horizon, A luminous error, or a vicious trick, I really seelly reelly weelly don't know, If Ma Ma Maya is Ma man, Ma computer, Ma squirrel, Ma measles, Ma satchels, Ma whistle, or if luck would conjure, Ma nightmare crow imagination, Ma intelligent post master, Giving wrong numbers to windfall seekers, Losing their prodigal soil to Maya, The thief of reason.