Dan Cuddy

A Plunge into the River

can’t escape the blank slate
that chalk can’t ride
letters, much less words,
fall
hit their cursive heads
flatten like an education
without liberal arts
or song
or the articulation of questions

words fly by in the mind
river-moon-sky-fire
a rote of words
sheep or baseball batting averages
or the earworm of an Annie Lennox tune

I say river to myself
leap in, am carried away by the current
the froth
the rapid bounce and dash
flash of a cry for help
but
thrown out
nothing to say
like Heraclitus
just an average Greek
clinging to Athena’s ankles
asking to be saved
from Sparta, Xerxes, Thermopylae
the river of arrows in a narrow
pass
a history test of fact, fiction
and don’t ask
for Socratic logic
in a poem flowing
through the sound and texture of words
bird songs greet the sun
poets run, leap into language
cannonball
what a splash!
and some poems drown
because they are about nothing
really
really?
the quibblers come with arrows, axes
critical seminar notes
boats don’t float
that violate the academics
the middle-aged ladies
throwing fruits, vegetables
haughty little *******
and that word I’d write
except I’m not into hip hop
so let us wrap the rap
and look on the river flowing past
looks like the water fallen
from Niagara
the chop and plop
in the narrow canyon
sluicing to the St. Lawrence

I am on the bank
left bank
being liberal
and wannabe French
I watch nonsense
say Dada
but he is dead
that makes me sad