D.A. Powell: California Poets Part 1, Three Poems
D.A. Powell
August 27th, 2020
California Poets: Part I
D.A. Powell
Three Poems
Lost Bible
if only it were a matter
of “repent and be saved”
we’d all be wiped clean
like the glass counter in the donut shop
that shows hot jelly and glazed
but no unctuous fingerprint smudge
where the fudge and the money crossed paths
I wonder who has my good book now
Mike the Band
Mike on drums Mike on Trumpet Mike on mike
Hot mike on Mike, hot Mike on trumpet, saxy Mike
On sax blows, Mike on bass slams, slaps the Mike
On keys, Mike tinkles on Mike on sax the mike
Picks up on Mike picks up on Mike on drums Mike
Comes from the same place as Mike on bass, Mike
Comes on Mike’s face (that’s Mike on keys who’s on Mike’s
Knees in front of the Mike who isn’t Mike who isn’t Mike)
I can’t stand Mike says Stan from Stanyan, Mike
The band or Mike the man, Stan? Mike the Knife (drop Mike)
24 Hours from Tulsa
A lot can happen within that radius famed for its twisters and sooners. Jukeboxes, for example, have always spelled trouble, that’s why they all have this song, as well as Stand By Your Man, Take This Job and Shove It, and I’m So Lonesome I Could [¡]. There’s no accounting for Cher. She alone is a neutral portent. Nothing bad happens as a consequence of her songs. Unless you count Take Me Home as unlucky. And I do not.
Author Bio:
D. A. Powell’s most recent collection is Atlas T (Rescue Press, 2020). His poems have received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the American Academy of Arts & Letters and the Poetry Society of America. A former Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Poetry at Harvard University, Powell teaches fulltime at the University of San Francisco.
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