CHAOS

Wallace Stevens

was a despicable man,
read up on him for yourself.
So it pains me to admit
"The Bell Jar"
was my five o'clock rooster
when the sun came up on
everything I needed to know.
Old Mrs. Hull said it was about
chaos and how only by the touch
of man could it mean anything,
how human beings were all about
bringing order to mayhem…

I walked three miles today,

which got me to thinking
about all that.

I considered my fathers, the Vikings,
and how they got to heaven
by dying in battle.
For them, Paradise was a drunken,
violent orgy every day so 

they could hone their skills
against Ragnarok.

Knowing their ultimate

defeat did not quail their hearts.

I looked at things, and took pictures.

There were no fewer than
three blue velvet bags for Crown and
about two hundred empty whiskey bottles
at the bottom of the ditches.
In one spot, seven or eight lay strewn
with a syringe at one side, evidence of
the kind of party I never get invited to.
The farmers pulled their fences straight
and tight to no avail, posts skewed
on their own, hog-wire tore and sagged,
old barns tumbled in the thickets,
and a girl's compact with a broken mirror;
Ragnarok winning.

I did, however, find half a sawbuck
faded in the leaves, enough for
a pint of cheap bourbon.

Vol Lindsey
3/8/2016

Reviews

[Zoe Richardson]

If it makes you feel any better, I never get invited to those kind of parties, either. I guess I am too much of a lady to indulge. My fathers were Scots and Irish, so I get the part about the cheap bourbon. My great-grandfather's credo was "It is a sin to buy bread if there is no whiskey in the house." One day, I should write a poem about that!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

there were several despicable poets. Sometimes beautiful work, but the creator of it someone we would rather not know.
A pint of bourbon can make anything look good.
j.

[Vol]

Jacob,
Country roads are no better, really than city ones... both are full of local stories littering the shoulders. Though speeding cars are somewhat easier to dodge than in the city... more birds, and wildlife, too. Nobody even sees you on the sidewalk, in the country, everyone waves.
Vol

[John the Baptist]

Perhaps cheap bourbon could help you understand Stevens. I never could .

[Vol]

Wasn't a lot there... Of all the Moderns, I think he contributed the least to the art... locked his wife and daughter out if his end if the house... Even "The Bell Jar" isn't that great bur I will always give credit to him...
Vol

[Lorry]

Well, there's that at least Vol!
Ah, I remember parties...is an oxymoron because if you do (remember) then you really weren't there man!
I do recall when noise wasn't what it now is today and actually being invited to impromptu parties, but never could recall much of anything so I assume they must have been good.
But you gotta remember that here in Scotland hormonal and ne'erday (new years eve/new years day) are the big celebrations. So from Christmas for about a week we celebrate, then nothing for the rest of the year, otherthan complaining about the bloody weather.
Plus, although the vikings never made it on to the mainland here, thanks to our national flower that's not a flower, the thistle.. but they did make it on to some of the islands so if you think we talk weird, just go visit one of the islands and see what raping and pillaging does to folk. They sound like they are trying to commune with dolphins! 😀

[Vol]

Lorry,
Ya know... there really Is a lot of noise out there... and most of it sounds pretty damn s****y... except music from the sixties.
But I've never been a party dude... I'm a loner... I make my own noise, and I'm opinionated as all hell... Well unless chicks are involved...
I watched that show, "The Last Kingdom." which kept me all confused by Viking invasions. I know what happened, They invaded England, and not Scotland for the same reason Hadrian built a wall across the whole place... Hey guys, "DON'T F**K WITH THEM!" And stay away from that wall!!!
Vol

[Lorry]

That was such a good show, with an amazing soundtrack from Eivor (pronounced ee-vorr) and I seem to recall in one of the first seasons they showed the real reason they didn't mess with us, because they couldn't make their way through thistles and decided to keep moving south until the thistles stopped.
I can see their point though because they really do sting like a b***h! 😀