Otherworld Canyon


Pahn is by himself in a cabin
in his favorite otherworld canyon        looking
through private treasures
from his past with former lovers           He finds
a catalogue
of inflatable boats
and chooses two…

…He is with Aiks in a water store      talking
to a saleswoman
(who reminds him vaguely of Ahstrild)

They try out
boats in the flooded aisles
that lead to

open
water
 
They are trying        to decide among
the boats in stock
which two they should buy      Aiks
has chosen one       and Pahn
goes back to the cabin
to bring and show 
one that he has chosen

but Aiks points out
the flaws in his craft
and they choose another—
they try to determine if it has a motor
and Pahn is reminded
of another pretty saleswoman
he has spoken to earlier…

                       …at the sales counter    
Pahn has chosen a toy                         
boat full of chicken soup

The man at the counter gives Pahn
                   part of the carcass       but tells Pahn
                     he might want to throw it away
               to avoid the bones 

Pahn puts it in the soup
 anyway
saying                         that he always finds
bones in chicken soup
and he just spits them out
  
  Pahn bites into                                           
           the piece of carcass    and immediately
             finds small bones      which he spits
back onto the soup                            

        in a small pile                                      
and picks off
with his fingers…

…Pahn and Aiks are with Lakhehsis
in a theme park              or shopping center     they walk
 through gardens       and natural displays           At some point
 they are told      to move on      for some reason
by a female security guard    or employee—something
 involving water
 
Aiks and Lakhehsis go on ahead
and soon Pahn sees them
by a sycamore tree     growing out over a large pool 
with a ghost of Yahpehtos       Pahn joins them
and climbs the sycamore      where he breaks off dead 
branches 
The security person comes over       and tells Pahn
that he shouldn’t be up there   but Pahn tells her
that he felt compelled              to clean up the dead
branches in the tree
and that he is an arborist     so its OK 
She tolerates him                     and leaves  

Pahn sees from the tree      in the near distance

a beautiful pool
by a glass window
  of a building
 and walks there with Aiks 
 
Aiks becomes Ahstrild                                 

and comments on how      alluring the water is
and finally    as it is getting dusky      Ahstrild    says
in her girlish defiance
she is going in      even if it isn’t allowed 

Pahn imagines
how cold it is                  and says
that it reminds him of lakes
in the mountains
but what it really reminds him of

                        is a mountain
                      river
flowing
through granite
potholes

Ahstrild prods him    to go in
and finally         he decides to brave it 

Jake Gyllenhaal

and a friend   are sitting on a ledge
next to the window 

Pahn takes off his shirt
and wants    to throw it over to the ledge
but is afraid that  it will get
                                                    wet
 
He calls over to Jake                                                
asking him to make sure   that it doesn’t
fall in the water      and Jake
gets in  and swims
 into the middle 

Pahn throws his shirt
dipping it in the water in the process                          

and jumps in
 
It isn’t as cold as he thought…

…Later Jake                                                  
and friend      recount

trying to swim in an asylum/zoo
and looking for crazy women             wandering
 in their reconstructed habitats—
open
fields                

grassy pens

with casual
keepers…

…Pahn is in the store            in the building
behind the glass window                                          
and sees a series
of containers            like tennis ball containers 
with labels that tell the sequence of  who
        has shown whom    his cabin in his favorite 
otherworld canyon—Steinbeck
showed it to Claudette Colbert 
Claudette showed it to Clark Gable
and after a while
someone showed it to Aiks
and Aiks showed it to Jake…

…after the asylum
after the zoo
      after the swim
after Jake
and the store

but we don’t remember when

At some point      they are in
the city at night      on a road in Italy
 trying to find
a petrol station                                  
that Pahn remembers
                 in front of another building
and Pahn isn’t sure         what to call its color
if it is the red                                          
or the brown                        
or the orange                       
          of Max Lüscher’s color test …


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


Some of these poems originally appeared in the following publications

Avocet
Dream International Quarterly
mojo risin'
The Muse Apprentice Guild (The MAG)
Transfer

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