Levi Wagenmaker

asked why

asked why I am so much better disposed
towards dogs than towards fellow humans
I should say that
no fellow dog has ever bitten me
and that most dogs do take a liking to me
at first sight or sniff
instinctively I suppose
something I find very flattering

not
that I wasn't flattered
by the possessive teeth-marks
pretty girls left on my body long ago

but that was then

now
I am given to wondering
if cattle feel flattered when branded

aches and other pains

riding a bike against the wind
pushing hard on the pedals
aching muscles especially thighs
slow down and in a little while
the pain will go away
go on and in a little while
the pain will go away all the same
eerie negation
of damned if you do and damned
if you don't
strange
even if the mechanism involved
is more or less understood

grief is different
much more reassuring

words by weight

for words to have impact
they had best be written on wrapping-paper
sheets large enough to wrap bricks
or eggs or anvils
but it is easier to wrap bricks
eggs or anvils or bodies
can conveniently be wrapped in blankets
or sheets or shrouds
but wrapping-paper is a better medium
for the written word
and also
bricks are easier to throw than bodies
wrapped in shrouds or anvils
wrapped in blankets (or not)
writing on eggs can be awkward
especially if scrambled

words without impact
will not cause anyone to be called
a tosser

yeah there's that

the ultimate pact

a minor poet and a minor atheist
he decided to sell his soul to the devil
in exchange for inspiration
to let him write the ultimate poem
raising the devil proved to be
amazingly easy
as it should be for anyone
who does nor believe in god
the deal was quickly concluded
the signature took very little blood
considering
the devil stopped time for long enough
for him to write his most mediocre
of poems
following which
the devil destroyed the earth
poet and poems and all

even when not printed in a small font
a contract's semantics are of the essence

Biography

Levi Wagenmaker (1944 - ) is a retired journalist, living in the Netherlands
for most of the year, and in France for some of it, with three bitches, two
of whom are dogs. Enamoured life-long with language (and languages), for
reasons immaterial to the act he writes poetry in English only, even if he
could most likely manage it in a few other tongues. His poems have been
published on line more than in print, and Google will tell the curious what,
where, and when.

C)opyright 2009 Levi Wagenmaker - All Rights Reserved

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