USA

larry@lgjaffe.com

The Shea

Sitting across from
La Guardia airport
nestled brashly into a
Long Island Sound inlet
Shea Stadium rose
from marshy banks
an edifice of sports.

It grew from a world’s fair
That spread joy in 60’s charm
Acres of countries and experience
And a picture of the future
that has yet to come.

It was something a young New Yorker could
think back upon with smiles
amidst Rootie Kazootie whistles
and lush Belgian Waffles with ice cream
and seeing with eyes unabashed
and unbranded.

And flexing political muscles
Sheathed in shiny suits of his
eminence one William Shea
Baron of Queens
namesake for the Shea
a stadium rose from the earth
the collective conscience of fans
who lost their sport souls
in athletic aristocracy.

In this grand tradition
a sports empire was born
football AFL style
baseball NL flavor
after Dodgers and Giants
went west as young men should.
Even the Beatles played there
in packed to the rafters
house of 53,275 screeching fans --
it was the summer of `65
innocence was lost when Kennedy
was shot down but New Yorkers
knew a good ballgame
when they see one.

But on this particular night
of this journey
it was cold. Bloody
November football cold.
The wind battered
the bleachers nonstop
frosting sports denizens
making it hard to sit still
and watch the game.

Nevertheless, it was not too hard
to remember they played for history
as Weeb Ewbanks the coach
and Joe Willie Namath the QB
moved the Jets to the promised land
the Super Bowl all of New York
wanted them to win.

Ghost watching

We are ghosts
watching movies
we cast ourselves.

An elliptical portrait
running in circles
birth without beginning
death without end.

Ghosts watching movies
of their resurrection.

Do not be vexed
by laying waste
to the children of Cain
we repeat lines
from the bible
many times.

Tensor

Shockwaves of excelsior
a once meadowed mind inhabited
by butterflies gives up
redemption without provocation

A hat falling on pelican’s wharf
predicts war and patriotic fervor

The bell rocks with cacophony
capturing neutered souls along the way

Newcastle is only a destination

Here lies the quandary to humankind
to bring or not to bring
receiving gifts forever with suspicion

no girls play the clarinet this night
creating calumny without rancor
the girls seek succor.

A silken shift lithely surrounds
the naked heroine
She rubs sesame oil onto her lips
completing ingénue consolidation
she is but a buttercup on the horizon
she is hero in larval stage
she sits in tonsorial rage
a surgeon of old
a shaman of new.

This moment of kiss

In this one screeching second
eternity halts
suddenly
releasing its hold on humanity.

In this moment of kiss
one does not
merely look into eyes
windows to the soul
but walks through the gateway;
the kiss
the doorway
between souls.

This moment of kiss
like no other
elemental bonding
linking of lips
in tribute of two
tied of heart.

In this moment of kiss.
memories are held captive
transforming melancholy
to spontaneous joy.

In this moment of kiss.

Questo momento di bacio
(Italian Version)

In un secondo acuto
l'eternità s'arresta
d'un tratto
liberando la morsa sull'umanità.

In questo momento di bacio
non si guarda
solo negli occhi
finestre all'anima
ma si cammina per la via principale;
il bacio
portale
tra le anime.

Questo momento di bacio
come nessun altro
legame di elementi
congiunge le labbra
in tributo di due
uniti dal cuore.

In questo momento di bacio
le memorie sono tenute prigioniere
trasformando la malinconia
in gioia spontanea.

In questo momento di bacio.

Translation by Anny Ballardini.

© 2001 lgjaffe.
All Rights Reserved. Printed By Permission.