By this time, after it all,really
I should be able to just fly away
but instead I find myself crashing
down toward the asphalt Common
falling off the tall curb they put in
when they installed water sprinklers
to keep the grass in front of the State House
green so only my old martial arts classes
save me from breaking my arm entirely
as I hip, bowed arm, and then shoulder
roll through ground leveling collision
after stepping off that high curb edge
going down with foot lost in empty air
still focused on swooping paper plane
attention diverted by my own denial
of how bad reality really does suck!
we’re all hanging there crashing down
failed economy, failed social structure
yes, failed political system legitimacy
all coming down on the people’s way
the Common COMMUNISM.

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.