FOUR MORE POEMS

Sam Robinson

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Theater World

Just and only
air and water
Arm candy and brain
food— Food
for thought— Sugar
before bed and sugar
shock— craving and I
dream of dancing
masks that do not
hide rather show real faces
Is my expression candid?
I think not but it is the authentic
me— expression of authentic desire
Or what’s more real?
When my face twists in
thought as my hand circles
[seagulls in lazy childhood air
where low-tide muck ate old man shoes— that’s how I grew up
and the beach will never leave me— always in me]
in midair— you see me
exposed and laugh sweetly— it’s all me

The fetish for the truth is not
my fetish— I love a good performance and I seek
the taxonomy of a lie, a joke
a story and the real



Three Sisters

I have my big coat on
By which I mean my sister
do not tempt me to steal but take
my hand and lead me as you never
have before yourself
in need of leading— that I will take

My father with his head
bald in hands thinking of his kill
shot that ruined a holiday

Plumbline descends
(& descends) my leaden lineage end
up with me my sister and my other sisters
Startling depth in a bath tub
a piece of what came
before boiled himself alive
Alchemically into comedy gold
If you can’t laugh you will cry and fight
at the dinner table
I give thanks anyway and always



Angel Sport

My dog and my sorrowful
immaculate heart full of eight daggers
holding more sharp edges
than usual— unusual— extraordinary
pain for your comfort I
cross the threshold at 4:44
Cinematic
haze a cloud
Unknowing waits
my surrender of all
facts and details such as:

My dog has long hair and a beak
My dog descends across an ocean
My dog exists always in heat
My dog has four wings (airborne in the sun)
My dog led me to you and you to me



War is the Father of All Good Things

Never having read Hegel, I nonetheless understand his thought, having lived the master-slave dialectic on all sides like a gem and the coal it once was. Light shines through me— a prism(atic) instant in midair, thrown up or dropped casting variegated fractals all around— feel the pull and warmth
of two suns

Next to nothing
[just-only]
above or below all
depending on your orientation— position of
the observer in time and space that determines
content of said observation

I am a-side
myself to welcome and healthy self interest
Flex your muscles in robust selfishness 
The strong do what they
The weak suffer what they
I am all for honesty and following the law
This is the only one
for this world that I love

Heraclitus said that all
life and everything is
fire and exchanged for fire— So
burn!

[this the moon tells me]