At The Chateau Marmont On A Stolen Night

( by Nick Mancuso )

los angeles
up & down sunset the harleys
roarcracking the dry pavement
whistles and human cries
in this hot autumn night
a whip of madness
flays the city
and i in this hotel
go madder than the maddest stars
i
do not understand the
screeching heart of this
desert land
dust & smog land
rancid innocence of the
american
sweet & bitter death
excitement
of the tremulous bones,
what beast lives here?
what is yr name?
what demon? jesus
in the neon staring mad eyed glare
of mummified faces
bodies stretched, fucked
& pulverized walking, riding
fucked
horns blaring blaring
go blaring
and i go on and
on this empty night
in treeless september
at 12.39 in the morning.
two.
at 6.am this morning
i received the news that
my father is dying
cancer ridden his body
rich in the death juice

save for my own
death
i know now that
i never again
will die.

(io sono nicodemo mancuso, antonio massimo, di mammola)
 

presence.
is it
autumn or spring?
i no longer know.
the ceiling fan
turns
counterclockwise
things turn & dissolve
mists
where once there stood
a man, a house, tree, cat,
coats without
trace of those
that occupied them
closets empty of things
in full sunlight
strange birds
at my fathers funeral
i thought
how strange to him
like this,
deflating matter
into spirit
i
a glass neither full
nor emty
but something else
beyond
my comprehension
an utter state
of otherness.

things turn, worlds collapse
and are born
spitting
into green bud.