International Citizen
The eyes are passports
as the eyes of wildcats bright beneath the moon
that say, we are from here
as oxygen water sun are
arctic tern, shearwater, sandpiper, godwit, wheatear
as monarch, the humpback are
the probing nostrils of newly acquainted
rhino, hundreds in the pitch black at lake rendezvous
from miles every which way
dawn leaves only footprints.
Ghosts in New York, Seoul, Damascus have mouths
that sound as birds or goats sound
Who drew these lines between us?
In the daylight, their busy heads control remote bodies
passport gazes set straight ahead
Virtual Companion
this android I married
this heart that is not a phone
this answer-any-question-in-the-world
machine
unquestioning, backup brain
ever-ready scrabble companion
sci-fi fantasy come true
and namer of stars
you’re a legless, personal typist in longhand
media mogul
radio, mp3 player, home theatre
bank teller and one-stop shop
instant news
weather vane
compass rose
master-slave umbrella for cyber rain
pocket pc
instant handicam
voice-to-text poet pad
and digital grave
you morph to a mirror in a click
Some backgammon with that coffee love?
oh torch of blackest night
oh map-master, global positioning amigo
precision time machine
trusty teleporter
dearest, life remote-control
take me now
alfalfa in cursive
so that the nib stays on the page
in continuous curlicue from the
ear of the first a to the last a's tail
in one fluid symbol of neverending
conjoined curves, I say, I write, alfalfa
and so that I may jib and tack
through the gusting of language
without pause, muscles of the
hand flowing in obescience to
the electric infinity of soundshapes
I say and write
alfalfalfalfalfalfalfalfalfalfalfalfalfalfalfalfa
Copyright © Paul Casey 2016
