Four Poems By Jnana Hodson

The great poems keep rolling in here at Zombie Logic Review. Here's four by Jnana Hodson. In order to preserve the original line form of these playful poems I have published them as received. 

ONIONS, OVERHEARD

1

pretending to be something else

in that hell of pots and pans

the spotted pigs or goats

peel imagination

that’s full of apples

her skin more fragile than a handkerchief

that’s all lace

with a big glass bowl

“no, you skin the vidalias”

Chief Seattle ordered

“they should be walla-walla”

2

we rarely hear moths

before hatching into flame

elegantly, dabbing tears

what he says is hardly imperative

in the combat of chickens

but forgive me

all that crap bigger

than the logs on that pyre

and just look at what’s merely smoking

FINDING A HAPPY MEDIUM

Everyone gets psychic

revisiting Chief Seattle

on another clear day.

In February, costumed for Halloween

devouring chocolate drops

was one year they forgot

Valentine’s greetings.

A clairvoyant

would find true love

on the Mummers’ Parade of an astral plane

taking off at sunrise.

Just listen to those two sportscasters

talk about college pigskin

playing 52 Squat

“down further!”

the whole deck

“let’s see you do it again!”

losing their spruce-root hats.

SO FAR FROM INDIANA

Through a winter of swimming in the indoor Olympic pool

my once gaudy chartreuse, orange, and gold swim trunks

faded to just lemon and white fabric

With such strong hot coffee in a John Davis original blue mug

and fresh orange juice in stemware on a snowy morning

so far from Indiana

Chief Seattle tallied forty feet on a dead reddish possum

in ice jammed on the riverbank

before we saw the rat scurry

PLAY AND ALIVE

The Wizard of Om

in the Land of Om

leads Everyone Om

in the circle of women

wOMEN

wOMBn   

w!MEN

wOMen

WOE!MEN

o!MEN

Then Chief Seattle stares at a battered box of powder:

 CAR

NATION

MILK 

and thinks it makes sense

Tells himself:

“BE A CLOUD

“BE A BIRD

“BE A DOG BARKING

“Then go beyond – through the dog

to the barking vibration”

Even in a totally sexual environment

there’s a Skid Road around the corner

crowded with enemy raiders

waiting to be translated

ALL THAT’S THE MIND

TO STOP NOW

Jnana has often selected and cropped photos for a living. Harbor of Grace, a chapbook of prose poems, was published in August 2012 by Fowlpox Press. He blogs at Jnana’s Red Barn (jnanahodson.net).