NEW MORNING

For Derek



1

Something about the blue boat on the blue page

Of the blue book with the blue lines sailing

The blue seas under the blue skies of blue paper

With the blue watermark

Something about the blue boat on the blue waves

Across the blue days to the blue ends floating

Off the blue waterfall to the blue underside

Knocked down & re-righted



The whole world turned up side down & then

The sun comes up sunny side up & hot

Hard boiling your egg rolls & rolling your

Legs across the table



Blackout something about a sock in the eye

Not a sockeye salmon but a right fishhook

That blocks off the lock up to black night

Foot in the mouth

Blackout something about a cell phone

A pack a wallet a wallop a dollop

Whereabouts hereabouts thereabouts

A check book to bounce



Falling off the wall the height of the curb

Off the cliff side the depth of asphalt

A blue boat sails with sails unfurled

Wing & wing



2

How late the daylight edges toward the northern lights

Journeying in a blue boat gilded in a mussel shell

With slung from its mast a lantern like our old

Idea of the soul

Off the wetlands & into the sky a flock of geese

Going south something about flying in a V

At the conjunction of Taylor & Chestnut & via

Corso Colombo: "Just one question, ma'am"



Blackout something about a van a blue van

A light blue van a light blue Dodge van

A light blue Dodge van with three men

& a woman



The jet blue propulsion of a rocket likes a D-Roc-

n-Roll eerily flying airily in an arc over an aerie

living "la vida loca" everything going south

in a puzzle of bone reassembled and sewn

Open your eyes up for us, give us two fingers up

Give us a V for victory, our victory in peace

And not in pieces this Pisces piece of piercing

Two fingers up, open your eyes



For we be throwing out a peace sign to have no war

But War before us The World Is A Ghetto sitting here

In My Four Cornered Room as we go Slipping Into

Darkness saved by Beetles in the Bog



3

Breathing tube out pneumonia down

Breathing mask on blood clot down

Breathing tube out feeding tube out

Oxygen mask off intubations out

Heart rate regular O2 levels up

In the blood plasma thinner OK'ed

T-cell count up the hospital mantra

Those white cells in the blood



Remembrance in a bouquet of flowers

A white poppy for peace a red poppy for memory

This page intentionally left blank Left Bank

& right brain on the Seine



I see you soberly leaning forward

Upon the precipice of your life

Seeing the absolute randomness

Of tragedy through the ER doors

Knowing you've been over the wall

Under the carapace of dura mater

The bone flap off edema down

The bone flap re-sewn on again



As the waiting room echoes with voices

Of families of all colors of the rainbow

Sharing these traumas & our dramas

As soon the double doors fly open



4

Coming out of the blackness

Into the blues & greens

Pressed into the darkness

Forming diamonds full of bases

& homes & green expanses

Of infields & outfields

Of grand slams & splash hits

& Barry hits a new home run



This ball has your name on it

This day has written your name

Every morning is the first

Everything is now



Your mom tells you she's your mom

You say you know

Your mom tells you she's here

You say you know

Your mom says she loves you

You say you love her too

Your mom says she'll be back

You say you know



The nurse says you're a New Yorker

You must be a big Yankees fan

You say, "Fuck the Yankees!"

Go, Giants!





-daviDJoseph

*

Derek is walking, talking, making movies, most recently "Dans le Fumee" and leading his normal extraordinary life. He's in rehab, has a girlfriend and will graduate from New York University in the Spring of 2008.