Thursday, 30 January 2025

Five Poems by Tom Pennacchini

 






A Bay Wolf in the Apartment of Eagles

 

Come the dawning 
 
Regardless of mood 
I like 
To take some moments 
To 
cut 
the 
Rug 
in the morn light of my room 
 
dip 
move 
vibe and shimmy 
I do the spasmodic 
To the 
Radio 
 
Amusing me self 
And digging 
The reflection of my Moves as 
Silhouetted 
in the Van Gogh prints 
On my walls 
 
Oh yeah 
I Got It 
A RocknRoll kid 
from 
Get to Gone 
 
It's my 
Days 
Dawn 
 
and 
 
Regardless of mood 
This is my private morning 
Clarion Call 
and my 
Free Flying 
Fuck It All


 

 

it can sometimes does

 

I am looking out the window with my classical on as I ponder the rigmaroles of existence discussing such with the most fascinating person I know.   

Every time I feel I've made a valid point or observation during my ongoing convo I like to whip off my glasses to add further emphasis  

while highlighting a point that's been made salient and to add further punctuating resonance landing on a note redolent of conversational flair.  For example as I gaze out  

I reflect to myself on the virtues of eschewing the virtual for the sake and embracement of tactility and doing the sharp clean whip on eschew.   

When I revelate that the only thing remaining is to become a saint there is a slow whipping on become. Like that. 
 
Happenstance can work well and good sometimes. 
 
Oh sweet exquisiteness, as I lovingly prepare an afternoon aperitif and just now at the ready of the first gentle sip (lord how I love my ceremonies!) the radio crows out "heroes" - Ah yes, aglow and  

a flow, I duly proceed to an illuminated bask. 

 
The heart of the matter resides in the entire lonesomeness of the venture, and so dream, a much needed break from the prosaic, makes fantasy a much vaunted ally. 
So it goes, the garden of eden and myself with menagerie of profound friendships and equipped with a fleet of canines are baying in unison at the rising moon each eve over the waters.  
 
I think of a bovine at dusk by the side of a country road, looming and ruminating.  Life can be so wonderful!  And indeed the cat never ceases to contribute the phenomenal  

and to provide blessed insight into all things seriously absurd, a well rounded tutorial in surrealist burlesque, 
It welcomes and relieves one from the strangulating confinements of love and isolation, providing a delightfully futile longing  

for unencumbered innocence and a bit of air. 
 
So it goes, the gallivanting ambition is to string two good days in a row together. 
 
But for now, synchronicity dovetails to a tee and a thickening 
of well and good in the here/now of slow nothing.




 

Incompletist

 

It's all a bit sketchy don't you know what with the RMS and all.  
Formal education and I didn't work out but I was on my way across the country to fulfil my own peculiar 
and 
particular manifest destiny which at the time (at the time)? was a semi - conscious state of befuddled uncertainty laced with a lack of pragmatics that was nothing short of utter ineptitude.  
 
(Oh essential humour I laugh to myself now at the notion of then going clear across the country to maintain my standards and my continuous quest for success in failure). 
 
We arrived at the train station and said our goodbyes.  
 
After you left there was a welling and a filling and at the same time a depletion of air.  
I rushed outside after a constricted couple of minutes to tell you something but you were gone. 
 
I was consistently lacking in effort 
and all done and said 
pretty consistent in afraid. 
 
I do at times wish that I had more of more 
than all this less though 
but the wish won't make it so 
 
At a certain point, I guess, we got 
uncomfortable around each other.  
 
I'm glad, though, that I said what I said before you went.  
I will add now that I am sorry I made you nervous. 
 
As I think back right at the now of this 
now 
 
I was at a loss 
 
then 
 
and still am 
 
so I'll leave it 
 
at that.


 

Winged Ones

 

Bustling old fella dashing biddly bop by dressed to the nines 
with briefcase stuffed under his arm equipped with fixed maniacal grin jabbering to himself while confirming his expressions 
to an equally jazzed and jaunty westie he calls Ralph trailing exuberantly behind 
let's me know 
that there are actually still some living beings out there 
to learn from 


 

Lone Folkie

 

There is a squat/stout duffer in a windbreaker and a Mets cap on the outskirts of the park 
playing a rickety 5 string and hoot'in and holler'in. 
 
I have no idea what he is singing.  
There is no discernible melody.  
Every now and then he stops/ freezes/ puts his forefinger in the air 
to take some sort of measure 
before plunging back into his flailing guitar.  
After another stuttering burst he will stop/ 
then let loose with an elongated cry to the sky/  
punk operatic/ style 
 
nobody seems to stop/and listen/he does not have a container for contributions and probably would not get much trade/ 
he is playing/for his own/self/and that is / enough  
It's/utterly senseless/ wholly out of key.  
Beyond the realm of anything/ 
resembling cohesive musicality 
/rambunctiously obtuse 
 
yet imbued with an innocence that casts proficient excellence into a pallid light.  
 
His songs/ performance/ like life/ a messy and inconclusive/ thing/ 
 
You can have/ your polished practice and Carnegie aspirations/ 
and make of that an evening/ with class 
 
but I like the way this codger lets her rip/  
 
this ragged chanteur/ 
airs it out/ no class/ no talent/ but lotsa / style



Tom Pennacchini is a flaneur living in NYC and has been published in numerous journals. 

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Five Poems by Tom Pennacchini

  A Bay Wolf in the Apartment of Eagles   Come the dawning     Regardless of mood   I like   To take some moments   To   cut   the   Rug   i...