To The Sea

To the Sea

I

Hey sea

where do u come from
who rained u
why are u dying i know why
how does that make u feel
don't answer that
seasick right

oh little sea
big sea
vast sea
motherfucking humongous sea
u is big
where are u now
why dont u kill us
we been bad
we didnt mean to

sometimes its a mystery
why we are so blah

we little flecks of foam
morphed out of you

and we have not grown
we have but now we decay
but occasionally we make nice
but now we get weird compexity
we think we all big and shit
bigger than the sea
and we got philosophy
Derrida and particle accelerators
we can destroy u, nuke you
we got your # mr c
we kill universe
take over
waterboard the sun
make sun talk
tell us where the codes are hidden
sploosh

Icarus dedalus, poseidon
dead dead dead dead dead
triton jason jonah moby dick jaws
all fizzled up made into oil

goodbye sea
rain no more
we can see clearly now
we are fucked and there is no god
to come down and spank us
no god to save us, hug us, hegel us
we killed god, didnt we nietzsche

oh see vast and lonely dying sea
maybe jimmy buffet will sing for u
goodbye sea
tatata earth
we go fuck up some other world now
that's the way things are

u must be joking
u cynical old fuck
get a life!
Stop using u in your poem
when you know damn well it's YOU

well well well
we'll wait and see
ha!
we always do
maybe we'll make it
some do, some don't
meanwhile
how bout sending a little rain this way

one day we may drink for you unselfishly
one day we may cry tears made by you instead of pepsi
one day we may watch you perform beaches, sunsets, splashy cliffs
one day we may save ourselves, save you, save god, and stuff
one day we may drink together, collaborate on a poem together, maybe a rewrite of Dover Beach from your perspective...
one day we may get to know the real you... do lunch sometime
negotiate your dispute with the moon, maybe make love
catch a movie... have children: half fish, half poem
we could be cute little ellipsis floating through space
and when I drown in you, you will absorb my thoughts










II

Off the cruise ship we got on the bus
and are poured beer into cups by mi amigo
who is a professoro who guides us and takes
tips like scholars of old- little did I know then
that I would soon be adjuncting too... but now
I am the ugly american, here to exploit him,
you know, see how he lives, that's how I spend
my vacation, spending money and shit.
KEEP YOUR HAND ON YOUR WALLET AT ALL TIMES GRINGO

So after sweating my ass off, nearly fainting in Tulum
I imagine what bastards the Spaniards must have been
and I stare at the jungle as my 7th cup of beer evaporates into the sweaty air

In Jamaica we sing Jamaican Farewell on the bus to the plantations and we spit
sugar cane and make jokes about marijuana, my brother and I, not the guide...
and ian fleming references, bob marley, blue mtn coffee, jerk chicken and poverty
looks like it was made by disney and uncle Remus gonna come around singing
zippity doo dah, although we are a bit too far south for that.

In grand cayman, we retrace the setting of the firm and I get salt water in my eyes
and don't swim, so I drink cognac and eat rumcake, poor me
think of all the money laundering -this place is well off seemingly
but I imagine that an asteroid like the one that killed off the dinosaurs
might hit the carribean again just like the one on the History channel
and this island with no high ground will be devoured by hundreds of feet
of water.
Where will all the money go?













2a

In ocho rios, we swam
where the cool river water cascaded down a
nd converged with the hot sea
and it is a wonder we ever climbed out
of the water

in playa del carmen
mom and dad swam in an underground river
while John and I sweated in Tulum's ruins

On the boat, I watch
midnight in the garden of good and evil
the apostle and the wedding singer

at the dining table
we are served by
a waiter from war torn
Yugoslavia and he works 18 hour days
for tips
our housekeeper from Africa does likewise
and the ship saild through 3 hurricanes
percolating in the carribean

then came keywest, Sloppy Joes
Jimmy Buffet and hemingway's 6 toed cats
then it was back to the normalcy
of Las Vegas nevada which is located
at the bottom of an ancient sea
long since dried up.