Racing Home, ( The Part About the Poem)

  " Under the Kerosene Lamp", was the title of the poem submitted to the 21th annual Renfard Kincade Poetry Competition by Jackson Whitlock, it was also the poem that led to his sacking from the university's English department. Additionally, it was this same poem( attributed to an even lesser-known poet named Sergio Williams), that was the catalyst of his first marriage -a young literature student named, Rosario de la Cruz.

 He had indeed stolen the poem from Williams and openly admitted to it. Arguing before the university board he shouted ,"With the changes I made - that I had to make, (in reality only  9 words out of 124), I've given this poem the proper birth it deserves, it has been liberated"! 

 This was three years before he started talking to pidgeons.

Standing in a Waterfall

It is said that we are hanging on the edge of  Earth - now is the end of words.
Literature has fallen.
What unholy secrets do they know ?

We are archetypes, mental images, heavenly sparks, hatched from the statues of ancient gods - we can not perish.

We will be transformed.
Transformed into bright neon campfires, 
into lighthouses on the banks a vast river, 
into brilliant torches along subterranean paths. 
As iridescent moths we are drawn to luminance.
Like the note of an omnipresent song, we resonate.

We are words.
Poetry is battle.

Serena de las Rosas

Walking the kids down shiny avenues.

"Maria santa, madre de dios, llena de tolerancia, el señor está con nosotros."

Up stairs to apartment - stench of heat.

"Bendicen le entre mujeres."

Scrubbing the floor, in the humid/quiet eve.

"Se bendice la fruta de su matriz, Jesús."

Drops of dirty water are catching a light.

"Santa María, Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros pecadores."

Rosary beads bounced as she ran from guns -
hiding, huddling in the jungle -
crying to the moon, crying to above.

"A la hora de nuestra muerte ..."

Now in the new country, with more dreams than war -
washing away :
memories, 
rats,
cells,
midnight screams.

"Amén".

Racing Home (part 1)

"And I didn't notice that I wore no shoes."
 - Pramoedya Ananta Toer,"Footsteps"

  The last message that Anne Singer sent to the hardly known and nearly never read poet Jackson Whitlock, went unopened for nearly seven years.
It was around the time of the sending of the message that pidgeons, and almost exclusively pidgeons, were the only creatures he communicated with . Really, he was just bribing them, paying for their attention with old bread. They never answered back.

  Earlier that year, Whitlock had published his third book of poetry entitled, "Reeds of Sorrow". It was generally trashed by the few critics who had even noticed it. At the time it seemed to Jackson that the only champions of his efforts were -

Anne Singer : pediatric nurse, former ballet dancer, Whitlock's former work colleage.

Jason Mascaras : Seventeen year old senior and bass player/ founder of the garage -punk band, "Eric Please Don't Fuck the Puppy".

Rosario de la Cruz : Whitlock's ex -wife, long-distance truck driver.

Elise Whitlock : Jason and Rosario's seventeen year old daughter.

Even Jackson Whitlock himself, could not be counted amongst the fans of his work. Unfortunately, he was totally unaware of his most dedicated, loyal, and important fan. He was frustrated and depressed - two facts that manifested themselves in Whitlock's newest behavior : talking to pidgeons.