Tonedeaf in Nashville:

Adrift in Post-Traumatic Space

series

[1]

"Why not invent a story: 'The Man with

the Wicked Tree in His Head'? Something

will come to mind: I will die only if I

can no longer

invent anything. I am dead

when I am silent." - W. Diggleman*****

[Reader: down the page is one twist our story can take as you know all too well or we can groom a calumnious pedagogue for a role in the new sitcom eggstravaganza or cobble together a piece of the puzzle with fuzzy logical digressions or find ourselves arising like that muezzin*, and fumbling in the dark for a way to organize the data or if the rhythm fits or]

An old down home bubba

Smiles

and shoots your eyes out.

Clarkesville, 5-3-93:

Country singer shoots. Selling

millions gives him the right to

fire his handgun during a common

dispute with three teenagers on the

interstate over the right to pass.

Adrift in Post-traumatic Space [2]

"309.89 Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

A. The person has experienced an event that is outside the range of usual human..."

Nameless bones spread

          maintaining always

                    appropriate distance.

And there another

psychotic killer

                    slouches free and loosely

toward Music City.

And Josie

faces Mecca,

and Josie fastens cute buttons

on an ice-blue top,

and Josie steels herself

for facing the

faceless waiting for

Big slices.

B: The traumatic event ispersistently reexperienced in at least one of the following ways:

...numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma) as indicated by at least three of the following:...

(6) restricted range of affect, e.g., unable to have loving feelings..."

I live in your small dark rooms.

And I wait for a window of opportunity to open.

And I wait. I wait for the shadow

that cannot be named

to overtake us, to overtake me.

Robert

     settled for various

          adjustments to that

               crimson paisley tie.

seeking connection he could tolerate

Clarkesville's Quiet

Shaken by 3 Killings    

Clarkesville, Tenn. - Annabelle Brown was washing the dishes from a spaghetti diner she had cooked for her boyfriend and two friends when she was shot in the forehead. "People are just going crazy these days," said...

Do we admit this to poetry?

Tsvetayeva recoiled in panic at what didn't fit.

In Clarkesville a country singer thinks

he can do whatever he wants

Selling millions gives him the right

to fire his handgun after a common dispute

with three teenagers in Wilson County

over the right to pass.

And in Bosnia

and in Russia

and in Ireland

the world of all religions and ethnicities is dying

for lack of medical treatment.

C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma or numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma) as indicated by at least three of the following:....

1. Silence

     and 2. numbness

          and 3. staring vacancies

               overfill the 4. empty mantels

                    and 5. guttered castles.

And this is me

          and this I cannot control,

                    this I cannot fix.

Adrift in Post-traumatic Space [3]

 
"309.89 Post-traumatic Stress Disorder A. The person
has experienced an event that is outside the  range of usual human..."  B. 
                                                   (1)  Th            Mauled
tots swim                         rec  etr               my mind's eye all      
             urr  au                     askew, asunder.                 ent 
mat                                                    an  ic          Death on
the playground:                   d i  eve              "C'mon, let us play
ball!"            ntr  nt                     Action speaks.               
  usi  is                                                     ve  ree        I
absent myself some.                       rec  exp             And then further
inure.                oll  eri                   Faraway Rockaway prison        
 ect  enc                                                    ion  ed       
Enwrap pain. One way                         s o  in            ticket to
Siberia.                       f t  at                  Return naked on nails.  
          he  lea                                                    eve  st one
of the following ways: ...numbing of general responsiveness (not present before
the trauma) as indicated  by at least three of the following:... (6) restricted
range  of affect, e.g., unable to have loving feelings..."

Adrift in Posttraumatic Space [4]

"309.81 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Ahh

at last at

last at the at the last

at the last of long travails

I can rest. Tonight

Tonight I can write

I can write of

wide-spread license the silent

tonight I can drink

waters of memory

Tonight I can feel

bitterness, tears, rumors whitewash

ing fences. Cover

thickened spaces

we cannot

we cannot traverse

alone.

"...or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or..."

Tonight I can see

Waco, that dry pristine air surrounding the cabin enclave,

TX

in a lone truck moving on to unabomb OK City

and here I sit watching hoping awaiting channeling

TV

Tonight I can hope.

Peoria. Black churches in flames and that truck moved

moved on moved on by the moved on by the traffic cop

held the answer.

"...threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others (2) the person's...

Tonight I can pretend

or we again could play

cowboys and Indians

cops and Robbers

citizens and Tanks

star wars defense and The Other

or I could end

or I could make it

rhyme

or relate

or make sense

or this it is not.

"...this may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior...

Tonight I can grieve

at last

at the end

at the end

of my at

the end of my days.

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