don van vliet
SINGING INK
poetry and fine
arts
HOLLOW SMOKE
poem and
'accompanying' untitled drawing
from
usa 1 november 1982 book VARIOUS
WRITERS * CONJUNCTIONS #3 four poems
and three drawings
notes:
'accompanying' means there is no
relation, it just was printed on the opposite page....
text with some references to the trout mask replica album
hollow smoke the hole transmitting
her hair come out like red meat through a screen door
wiped her shoulder balanced like a ball
her face was erect on a long thin neck
light rubber mountains in the distance stretched
under wind blown spider webs
the wind puffed out drank the blue sky
one milk cloud grazed
the sun sailed into black bag hung to strap around
the girl bowed and rested against her cocked hip
a row of buttons ran up her like raisins
crisp collars folds made shadows under her loose breasts
feet orange rakes wiggled sand
the sea moved returned claimed one lace paper plate
like a frayed damp fish it spun and sank in a foaming circle
a sandwich corner flies in a gull's beak
she smiles her fingers skim into green beads
drip roll and line off her creased palm
clear salt diamonds sparkle on her nose
black horns shadows her cheeks
turn pink red pulp darts into speech
and rests between glazed white
in a moment i say
the day caught me full hot open eyes swam blood graphs
cloth grated roughly damp where i set
black hair fur and wings rancid rainbows
hummed the half eating dead fish silver and pink brine
bubbled from the torn off fin
i searched for a stick
poked the bloated bulb one scale broke loose like a husk
shaped like a fingernail blew away like paper
over my shoulder the sand made the highway crawl
black and wavy my car looked important
a fat person moved noisily by with two small children
on either hip disappeared down the beach as decorated genitals
under an umbrella rocks stuck my buttered body
i caught one under my nail and flicked it with my thumb
pena said: 'you look like a sugared strawberry.'
we better get going before it gets cold and it makes us too hot
pena danced like a wounded stork - held her foot up
screaming: 'i have been bitten by something!'
i consoled her - you have been attacked by a coke cap
it's angry teeth prints fading
pena exclaimed: 'that's the raspberries.'
a banana like a limp star drooped from her free hand
this situation pleased the old man
his face smiled leather laughter
the thermos opened - the inside of the car
tasted like a caramel you walked by
this is cold - this is too - somebody will see if we do something about it - it's too day
you wanted to - it was your idea - it's damp 'n' cold 'n' noisy at night though - cops might arrest us - who cares how we go together but jesus?
pena your legs are pretty as a crab the way they open
'are like pincers' said pena innocently
'whales never come out of water do they?' pena tongued
if that happened it would be a sticky situation - listen to the ocean - i can't - all those little ears - ha ha pth pth zzzz
pena exclaimed: 'that's the raspberries!'
what more could you want than to be brought up?
the old fart's heart beat like a drum
his mouth was dry and there was an angry whelk
throbbing from where he had been poked earlier that day
while posing as a dead fish
one fly had crawled through the nostrils in his intricate trout replica mask
and had somehow got fouled-up in his intricate air-bulb atomizer breathing device
and it whistled and stank and tickled with every breath
one leg had been torn off where the tube went in his mouth
he could feel it hanging from his lip
and the thought of it almost made him vomit
he was numb from the neck down
and was too exhausted at this point to dig himself out of the sand
his whole scheme had been foiled
by the fog that gathered on the inside
of the detailed view holes
that even upon close inspection
appeared to be eyes
don van vliet 1982
small reproduction previously published in usa 1 january 1981 musician #29 * captain beefheart's iridescent logic
reprinted in italy 1996 book luca ferrari * pearls before swine...
don van vliet 1980
important!
if you like you can click clack to the other ones right away:
poem &
drawing popplin' gas hearts
poem &
drawing the smith that cleans our stars
poem &
book cover drawing dopedinstunnedmirages
captain beefheart
electricity
as felt by teejo
^