JOHN MATTHIAS
 
 
 
 

 Easter 1912 and Christmas 1929:
 Blaise Cendrars and Garcia Lorca
 in New York (a second take)

What lengths what loops.  In 1912 and
good enough.  In 1929.
At Easter first, at Pâques.  And then a good
right hand and arm blown off
the shoulder at the Battle of the Marne.
And after 1930, the Falange.
But Easter first, but Christmas next again.
A calendar, a caliper.
And One:
who'd done a juggling act with Chaplin
in the London circus once.
One: who'd hear
a violin in limousine, a xylophone in linotype.
Who'd call out Negro Negro to the King
of Harlem looking for the Gypsy Jesus Christ.
In 1912, in 1929.
Caruso sang Puccini & the widows in black
carried his cross through the Bronx.
Whose Red Christ or whose Black Sun split
apart like a coal? Did somebody say
Je connais ... Je descends
à grands pas vers le bas de la ville?
Did somebody answer
with wheel and leather and hammer and oil?
Ninguno quería ser...
Ninguno amaba las hojas, la lengua azul.
First Cendrars in 1912.  And Lorca next.
One: These three:
Chalice and orchid and book.  All the Christs
all the heists in museums.  Nobody
there to hear bells, nobody anthem and song,
nobody liturgy, nobody nun, nobody
prelate or drum.
So dic nobis quid vidisti nobody nobody
there: Encores encipher at dawn.
Ten: What tense? Who'd tell
what tensions tore the whorish times.
They're all at nines who once were six & seven.
War and crash and war once more
within the loops upon the lengths & tongs.
The Russians all wore sarafans the cats
all wore kokoshniks.
Only Andalusians barked like the dogs.
Where bankrupts dealt in a contraband Duende
how could you dwell in the Blancos del Oro
Kingdom come where nobody came?
One: who dressed himself like a bride.
One: que se viste de novia.
One: who came back all alone to his room
whose bed was cold as a tomb
who had heard a thousand women sing who
had heard a thousand cellos:
Cent milles femmes, cent milles violoncelles.
One: These Two.
Blaise Cendrars and Chien Andalou
with flamenco guitar.
In 1912 good enough in 1929.
Before the Marne before the carnage in Spain.
At Easter first, but Christmas next again.
Chalice and orchid and book.
Length and loop, anthem and gongs,
limousine xylophone linotype library songs.