Toe Poetry

[Wick]

Einstein’s Lion

Einstein’s lion
is an excellent specimen
of taxidermy—
majestic in form,
fearsome in demeanor,
yet never moving
(so much as
a whisker).

It neither eats
nor defecates.
A miracle of
efficiency.

And so its
tail
remains
pristine and
clean.

But neither does
the lion DO
anything.

It simply is.

Even its fleas
are stuffed.

[timeparticle]

It Was All a Lie
by, Tp

It was all a lie,
I died.
After Lincoln, Washington was slammed
with corruption, big business damned
the rest of us to hell, you're belief
misinformed, because you were told, mischief
to manipulate the public to think I was foolish
to lead my men alone, set up by the cruelest
for greater wealth and power, told.

The Union Pacific approached me first,
to get rid of the Indians of the Dakotas, thirst
was my anger, in front of my wife, and kicked
them out of my house, so they thought I was wicked
enough to kill for money and rank,
They would find someone else puppet stank.

D.C. wanted the railroad to link to the west,
they would do anything possible to get rid, pest,
of the Indian treaties that were in the train's
track, so the track can be laid, sustain
must the movement be forward, steam
ahead to the Black Hills, and create a vivid dream,
a false rummer in 1874 that their was gold
in the Sioux hills, spread it in newsprint told
all over the country so many will invade, hate,
and disrupt the Treaty of Laramie in 1868.

The Indians would fight to keep their land,
and the invaders off, known to railroad tycoon brand,
so that the treaty would be broken by the "evil"
Crow and Sioux, send the army to protect the weasel
gold miners "innocent" of any crime, just some gold
to hold, and turn into wealth, greedy mold.

I went to D.C. to my Generals in charge,
explaining the tragedy, enlarge,
to take place, for the fake gold rush news
turns into a war, please send the miners, no clue,
home. They said it was circumstantial
evidence, no merit, unless a dead soldiers special
testament letter, may be introduced, securely.

The 7th Cavalry Regiment was ordered to fight,
to protect the miners from the ruthless might
of the treaty breaking indians, I had to lead
them in the attack, no mention that these were stead
my friends, Crazy Horse, that I grew to respect.
I wrote the letter, gave it to my wife, neglect,
I fear, and set out to follow orders, somewhat unaware
that I was about to be set up by the best cowardly fair
that big money could buy,
make sure I don't spill the beans, they'll make sure I die.

The letter, I am sure, was lost, between
the slippery fingers of the politicians seen,
and railroad men unseen, and to make sure
history books account for the foolish behavior
of an ill-timed attack misadventure of a Major
General Custer, forever accuse me of mean and
ignorant stubborn character hating Indians,
raping their women, arrogant white officer
so they can have their great railroad financier
go untarnished along with the U.S. Government
unblemished, as the scapegoat arraignment.

So, I finally told the truth to all to muster
signing out, Major General George Armstrong Custer....



The completion of the overland railroad link provided an easy means of transportation for gold seekers and farmers to come to the area. As the migration continued, trouble with the Sioux increased. On 20 June 1873 an expedition was ordered to move into the Black Hills of Dakota to provide protection for railroad construction parties. The expedition consisted of 1,451 troopers, 79 officers, and 275 wagons. As a focal point of scouting activities, a permanent encampment was established at Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Yellowstone Territories. From 1873 to 1876, Custer commanded the Seventh Cavalry at Fort Abraham Lincoln south of Mandan. In 1874, he led his troops south into the Black Hills, which six years earlier had been set aside as part of the Great Sioux Reservation. When Custer reported finding gold, the government offered to buy the land from the Sioux, but they refused to sell. The Army then allowed gold prospectors to come into the Reservation's hills by the thousands. The Army's action prompted many Sioux to leave their North Dakota reservations and join with other Sioux in Montana led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, who were resisting white government control.

In 1875, the regiment escorted a railroad survey party into the Yellowstone Valley. This expedition brought the regiment into regular contact with the Indian raiding parties, however no serious battles or encounters occurred until the fateful expedition of 17 May 1876. General Alferd H. Terry was in overall command of an Army campaign to relocate the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians from the open plains to reservations. The 7th Regiment rode out of Fort Lincoln on 17 May 1876, with Custer along with the Arikara and Osage scouts leading the way, followed by 1,200 men and 1,700 horses and mules. The 7th Cavalry Band played "The Girl I Left Behind Me".

The Black Hills Gold Rush took place in Dakota Territory in the United States. It began in 1874 following the Custer Expedition and reached a peak in 1876-77.
Rumors and poorly documented reports of gold in the Black Hills go back to the early 1800s. In the 1860s, Roman Catholic missionary Father De Smet is reported to have seen Sioux Indians carrying gold which they told him came from the Black Hills.

Prior to the Gold Rush, the Black Hills were used by Native Americans (primarily bands of Sioux but others also ranged through the area). The United States government recognized the Black Hills as belonging to the Sioux by the Treaty of Laramie in 1868. Despite being within Indian territory, and therefore off-limits, white Americans were increasingly interested in the gold-mining possibilities of the Black Hills.
Prospectors found gold in 1874 near present-day Custer, South Dakota, but the deposit turned out to be small. The large placer gold deposits of Deadwood Gulch were discovered in November 1875, and in 1876, thousands of gold-seekers flocked to the new town of Deadwood, although it was still within Indian land.

Construction of the High Line near Custer, 1890
The first steam engine in the Black Hills was brought across the prairie by bull team to the Homestake Mining Company at Lead in 1879. In 1881, the Home-stake Company created the first narrow-gauge railroad in the Black Hills to haul its cargo and the public from Lead to several mining camps. In 1885, the first standard-gauge railroad reached Buffalo Gap, Dakota Territory, and was extended on into Rapid City the next year.

[Wick]

Spacetime

I

I still remember
the smell of that cold winter day
when you and I went walking
on the frozen river

So cold

The ice was hard as iron
no sound
beneath
our feet.

The whole world seemed still
As though it had been caught
in some pure resin
of perfect clarity

On warmer days
I could look
down
through the windows
of ice and see
water
flowing black
like blood

But on that day
the river was frozen
down deep
every molecule of water
caught
in a crystal lattice
of ice
the unseen bars
of nature’s prison


II

I still remember
how it seemed
almost
that time stood still
that somehow you and I
as ice stood
frozen solid
unmoving in the bitter chill

No wind
as I recall blew past
our covered faces
No snowflake
creased the unrelenting air
though the silent sky
hulked like a frosted
pewter dome
above us

I waited for the universe
to breathe
the ice to crack
the steel gray branches
of the willows to rattle
in a frigid blast

But only silence
sounded
while the universe
and you and I
a frozen river
stood

How I wanted to tell you
or to hear from your lips
but our words
were like the water
we walked on
frozen fast


III

Is change a mere illusion
persistent though untrue?
a walk upon a frozen river?

Are moments past
now shrouded
in ice
we leave
behind us?

How could it be
that moments warm
as those we shared
in summer
are enshrouded
beneath boot prints
in the ice
we crossed
upriver?

Is there no heat
in those moments now?

If there were
the river would be roaring
and what remains unspoken
would come pouring down
like rain

Thick frost
hangs from my scarf.
My breath
freezes in the air
immobile
crystalline
thoughts


IV

Dear God in Heaven,
send on us the sun
to melt the ice
of space-time
till the universe
come flowing
like a river choked
in springtime!

Cause all creation
to roar down in torrents
from the ice encapsuled
mountains
to the permafrosted
shores!

Melt this ice beneath us!
Make the frosty iron molten!
Sink us down into warm waters!
Let our words arise like steam!

That I may hold you
knowing
I am not compelled to do so,
that my kisses
in this moment
are not written in the stars,
that my love freely given
can’t be woven into fabric
though the threads of that strong fabric
be the threads of space and time.

I will not let fate hold me
nor believe my future woven.
I am woven and unraveled
in this moving Present Point!


--Wick

[timeparticle]

Swing Band
by, Tp


Swing Band rehearsal tonight,
late, drag after a long work day fight,
to play big band music, cool swing
sounds delight, from the Depression, sting,
through to the forties war torn,
back bone of America, jazz horn
blowing, cool bop and bee-bop fifties.

I play forth trumpet on cool musical
phrases, delight my soul to read arial
high notes, syncopation throughout,
difficult rhythm, bang a wrong note,
everyone hears, but not the words
to myself, keep playing 'till the end is heard.

I sit next to the third horn,
about my age, very cool blower, corn
on the second and first who are
always joking around between resting bar.
Old men these two, over eighty
seen the jazz age fully, they played many
gigs with swing bands past,
have much to learn from them, vast
is their knowledge of hard core jazz-a matazz.

We joke around during the break,
drink strong coffee to keep mildly awake,
make fun of the trombones and saxes
and them of us, to keep it fun, chum, crumb-cake done.

We'll be ready for the next gig, hasten
to whom ever would come and listen
to old time swing, cut the rug, boogie bumping, bee-bopping
tapping, time.

[Mohan.C]

Come here, together, we will
Speak of winter's bliss.
And of summer and spring
If time permits.
We will speak of love and beauty,
Of that tender kiss.
We will speak of everything
And everything that went amiss.

[Mikal]

ODE TO DAD

The wind caresses the still and silent earth
A once upon a time…garden…
This was your place of loving toil
At the break of dawn
You smiled with the sweet song of morning birds
In the rising aroma of coffee.
Fresh in the fragrances from the hyacinths
Only your eyes could see…
The future vision of the creational soil…

I watched you as a child
The dawn would hold you in its quiet..
In Deep communion with yourself as the tiller
Giving and bringing of you…
To bear fruition to this once upon a time place
This place of your beautiful garden.

Every Father’s day, I return to this patch of land
That so captured your soul..the essence of you
The earth is silent; my walk is with your spirit
My quiet smile is a memory
Of riotous colors that came to live as your flowers..
As hues of green that ran into browns
Of tangled vines and climbing trellises
This did borrow from the light and dew to…
Come to live as this once upon a time..
This once upon a place…
This..which became your Garden…

Love Mikal

[Wick]

In memory of Mikal's father

Beneath the Snow

This garden's pale complexion may confuse you now,
but don't assume its blank
expression represents a lack
of thought, or passion, or of potency.

Beneath the snow, my roots are reaching out
a web of hope that you,
as melting ice, might trickle down
to urge the rose to rise in memory.

And here, under the frozen earth, the worms
are casting fertile threads
to norish my return to you.
No tears. Just walk the garden. Look for me.

And in the spring, I'll show you bursting buds
and red and yellow wood
and fresh green leaves, and all that I
have contemplated here--beneath the snow.

Wick

[Wick]

THE BOX

“In general, Sir, in general,
we encourage you to look outside the box.
Tear down a wall! Put in a door!
Pull out your keys! Undo the locks!
Escape into the light of day!
And as you grow accustomed
to the brightness of the light,
feel free to take in everything
the box hid from your sight!

“In almost every case, Sir,
every case that comes to mind,
you have to look outside the box
should you ever hope to find
the thing your looking for.

“But in one simple case, Sir,
we discourage—no forbid,
attempts to peek outside the box
or lift the box’s lid.
This box has no outside, Sir,
no lock, nor key, nor door.
This box contains the sky, the earth,
all things that in them are—
each electron, every quark
every planet, every star.
This box holds all the nothingness,
holds all the time and space,
the dark things of the cosmos,
tucked away without a trace,
And every single boundary
every crossing, all directions
reside inside this cosmic box
without any exceptions!

“We welcome you to search the box,
describe its shape and nature,
describe its every content,
every substance, every creature.
But please don’t waste your time, Sir,
seeking chinks, or holes or cracks
which might provide an exit
from this universal box.”

Wick

[austintorn@aol.com]

Darn! All I did was make the box bigger

This is one of my ancestors
reaching out past
the edge of the universe into a place,
which, before he got there,
wasn't there, but, upon his arrival,
his E/M waves gave it existence.

[Wick]

Nothing New Under the Sun

The place your ancestor found
was already there
in spacetime
it just wasn't when yet.
We discover nothing
in spacetime.
We just get to the whens
linearly
instead of all at once
the way the universe
does it.

For the universe
at large
there's nothing
new
underthesun.