David Hadbawnik
2 Poems
Rondeau (with a line from Clark Coolidge’s At Egypt)

of a sandy fizz in price, bongos in attack

we have less of these forlorn in champac

the wasn’t tied to where it’s not been true

token as to what in their milieu

could only be described as leatherback



chairs such as those swift & nimble as Muzak

in speeding elevator, or hair back

squandered as anything, as if she knew

of a sandy fizz in price, bongos in attack



the bush leaves limp, spiders out of whack

a tithe to the forgotten ones, frozen Kodak

hovers as tide to throat, switcheroo

in the El Camino & she’s got you

sure as almanac



of a sandy fizz in price, bongos in attack



--9.29.01



Mosquito Suite – a Clogyrnach

the mosquitoes that swarmed my skin

last night – an angry bulletin

that woke me not once,

a dozen times – runts

whose affronts

I begin



to admire, for their persistence,

their perpetual buzzing dance

as I leap & try

to swat them, they fly

off, defy

vigilance.



Death, where is thy sting next to these

tiny deaths who prefer to tease

out life & blood bit

by bit – think of it –

and transmit

sly disease?



Malaria is not unheard

of, even in Vermont, absurd

as that may sound; plus

there’s hepatitis –

why discuss

it?  A word



suffices.  Meanwhile, there’s a whine

in my ear, a chill down my spine

already a bite

itches, & tonight

I won’t fight—

I resign.



--9.25.01

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