B.Z. Niditch- Three Poems

IN A LIVING ROOM

In my girl friend's
living room
of entrance,
and departure
from crystal goblets
you drink and draw in
from blinds and awning
as grackles rose
outside Cambridge Common
standing near
the Charles River
a young poet
on the corner
near the news stand
by the first rays of the sun
my alto sax blown near
the bicycle racks
waiting under every limb
of a hundred years
of Evergreen
needing your company
refreshed and vetted
I'm palpitating
by a hornets nest
from a no nomad
allergic reaction
after attending session
of discussing the psalms
you show her a new poem
and abracadabra,
the dead wind of June
becomes alive.

 

 

DREAM LANDSCAPE

We crashed against
the careful landscapes
on our motor scooters
into an avalanche of paint
as a tenant of breathless
wall art passes us by
scents of a kindled hands
know my signature initials
will not remain suspended
in water shed reputations
along the Thames
from a raining downpour
of hypnotic night dreams
spellbound drawings,
in a lightness of a viaduct
of being once connected
as we came to visit you
in London
from California's entrance
here we depart
Omaha all aboard
with John Denver
even Lord Baltimore's here
get up kid, he tells me
in my blue beret
take off your Gogol overcoat
the Big Apple is the next stop
for your urban read
is ready for first announcing
in its buzz
we are on call,
let's visit the British museum.

 

 

PLAYING SAX

Near the train
I played her a love song
on my sax
going my way
to a gig,
she was once unreachable
as the highest riffs
of E minor
my five fingers reach
her in Brighton Beach
sleeping in a cot at dawn
there my playing
intoxicated the melody
of the ravishing ocean
by the light housed moon
spelling out a language
that will not poison
the past dawn
which wounds
snapping back our memory
that tossed us
in the night air
after we read
the letters of John.

B.Z. NIDITCH is a poet, playwright, and fiction writer.

His work is widely published in journals and magazines throughout the world, including: Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Art; The Literary Review; Denver Quarterly; Hawaii Review; Le Guepard (France); Kadmos (France); Prism International; Jejune (Czech Republic); Leopold Bloom (Hungary); Antioch Review; and Prairie Schooner, among others. His newest poetry collection, "Everything, Everywhere," will be available from Penhead Press in September.

He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.