ROBIN WYATT DUNN - POEMS

​Robin Wyatt Dunn writes and teaches in Los Angeles.

                              For David Rocklin

The job of the poet is to kill
Slaughter the animals, and their faces
Be contagious
Be outrageous

And be healed
Be healed by me,
Strange brew,
And I'll give you the world.

It's not an ancient thing
It's new.
You too.

I can't carry it all.
Here,
Help out.
These things are ours.
I've seen them here.

Spirits
Attending on us

It's not okay to say
You'll send them away
They're here now
For better or for worse

Say you'll do better
Say you'll do midnight

The midnight show

If you can do the midnight show
We will do better.

Long wings cast slow shadows;
It's terrible to be afraid.
I haven't seen you before
Did I know you somewhere else?

I've seen so many things now
Have I told you?

My job is to kill



                                           love poem

what may you remind me

what for and when
when my last act

when my last act

burning signature midnight
beating you
breaking you
burying you
I'll bury you

and I'll laugh

and I'll grow my beard.

these evenings it's more clear
who loves me best.

I told her which parts she needed to hear
which parts weren't old yet.

I told her the funny parts
and left out the parts that didn't nake sense.

I told her why.

And I'll tell you too.

It goes like this:

Because you're a fuckup.

Oh my glorious fuckup Los Angles read me like my right hand
still eloquent and familiar
still stranded
without one dollar
nor any cell phone

no one shall know you

no one is here.

I am alone.

come with me and I'll show you what I mean
despite the catcalls
and the roses.
despite the feeling that we've been doing it too often
that we've all been here before.
I wrote this poem for the future me
so I could remind me
where I'll be when I'm there

who you'll be
still stupid and familiar
still by my side.

I made a poem and I wrote it out
and then I tore it up
(or at least deleted the file)
when you betrayed me

betray me again
it feels better each time

each time you never trust me to take you after this beam
this better beam
each time I told you where and when
and how
and why
each time I went there and saw.

It's midnight.

This moon the earth
This moon over the earth.
Are you still there?

Are you still there?

Under these negro streets at dawn.

or at some other time?

Is it at some other time?
Is it near?

Near as your faces
Your sermons
Near your deliverance
from mediocrity
religion
from Los Angeles.

Take me back
Take me back to Los ANgeles
so I can be reminded who I've become.

Take me to Echo Park or Koreatown so I can hear the gunshots and the
calls to Jesus.

Tell me better.

All these seasons
marking the time to market
and the time to seed.

all the times to market
All the times to seed

Stutter me
over your page
stutter me again
send me again
stuttering to your midnight oil
over the airwaves los angeles

and I'll deliver you too
I am meant to deliver you
that is what I've been remembering.

No messianic fervor for me
Messiah only means, anoinited
and I gave up the marijuana.

You shall have a sober priest.

Still tending fires you didn't know were there.

I burn for you, but it's all right that you will never know that
that you have never seen the flame.

I burn brighter.

Over
and over
and over again.

Tell me who it was and I'll tell you why
and I'll tell you why you'll never care enough.
I'll tell you where you went to the poem
to the corner
to the crouch
and waited too long.

It's calvin and hobbes again
writing poems for the masses
after jerusalem is lost
after the walls are fell
and mr fell comes testing rocks to see which one will make it through the window
and I'll be there too

saying:

"Why wasn't it your Negro streets too?"

Why didn't you
Why weren't you
you could have
should have
made done with
gone under
understood
made known
and made part
undertaken
and held hostage
strained and remembered
loved

you should have loved

should have loved better.

it's not nice to know the truth but that's our job, remember.

know it and weep.

know it and weep.

know it and weep
know it and weep for you are delivered from madness
into madness
by my side
in the perfect midnight storm
in the perfect midnight alley
with my knife agaisnt your throat

I have a knife by your throat
it's love.

Don't move