Woodruff in Anger

7 in the evening 

I stood up in the rain 

13 minutes passed 

since I left my early poems, muted, 

in the rain

as I was 

Leave-taking my London train 

In Brighton Station 

I stood up trying to do a Mary Poppins

with my golden gadget umbrella-in blue

floating up to the highest height

I was going through a terrible eye pain

gripping a hot starbucks coffee

my goblet dropped down

in the last flush of the shore light 

My muses went betimes elated 

By a wonderfully glimpsing star light

it enlightened me,

set off some strangely surreal delight 

upon my telltale sky

and that made my eyes' day 

my eyes were contented I

bought a Blue Trench Coat

before, 
from churchill square

my new umbrella couldn’t withstand the heavy rain

I stood up in the rain

waiting for 27 Westdene,

inside the bus 

My Ferragano glasses fell into my gypsy bag

at arm's length from me

There I met a man who 

looked hefty and stout 

but the truth, a human vigor 

comes not from body muscles

but from his long journey of soul pain

By Tongdean Road

Each of us chose to drop off 

He was much in pain 

His face looked young and pale

He’s stifling in agony 

Did he know his pain

drove me enough insane

At Meadow Close 

Something I saw in his twinge

Something weird and insane 

I said that's no fair,

You die in solo dance

It’s no fair, You who dies in pain

You die in solo human pace

So your fever 

to convalesce, 

have you seen 

the last scene of

Love in Andalus? 

Have you planted 

Your hands to serve 

a darvish who is madly whirling in love? 

Have you not withdrawn 

a soft swan song

near Woodruff Avenue or

In Valley Goldstone?

Have you drunk from the river of 

Fever

and dried your pain 

with embroidered towels 

tearing in the wind?

A swift pang I have received

in my heart 

a too shelling pain

Into Meadow Close 

Something I saw in his twinge

Something weird and insane 

I said that's no fair,

You die in solo pain

in the rain

I stood up trying to do a Mary Poppins

with my golden gadget umbrella 

floating up to the highest height

I was going through a terrible eye pain