Rare Lunch (by A.J. Kaufmann)

RARE LUNCH
by A.J. Kaufmann

A story beyond rehearsal
outshone the blood-stains
thoughts blowing
slices of fact
caught broken

A heavy kick
pushing and pulling the world
foreign faces
jury of scarecrows
passed defense

Heathens laughing
ragged hole in moments
grab your flutes
lifted dreams
sound of restaurants
the rare lunch awake
makes the night laugh

* * *

A.J. Kaufmann  is a young Polish poet, songwriter and traveler, the author of Siva in Rags, Pilgrims & Indians, Broke Nuptial Minds, Saint of Kreuzberg and other poetry / song lyrics chapbooks. You can visit him online at http://ajkaufmann.pl or at http://kaballahfreighttrain.wordpress.com.

Insane in Rome (2008) and Saint of Kreuzberg (2010):
http://erbacce-press.webeden.co.uk/#/a-j-kaufmann/4530637516

Vagabond Vacancy (2010):
http://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com

Pilgrims & Indians (2008):
http://www.lulu.com/content/4473070

Until the Black Seas (by A.J. Kaufmann)

UNTIL THE BLACK SEAS
by A.J. Kaufmann

We heard murder
whispering wig roads
soliloquy
chill curiosity
another dead man
numbers swell
village hell
to be found in the crowds
stepping up to the empty
garden jeweler
sitting my stream
speaks in fire
guttering candles
roar
weeping glass
bleak business
the open town
a dozen loose-heels nights
back to the first voyage
holiday
tobacco
until the black seas

* * *

A.J. Kaufmann  is a young Polish poet, songwriter and traveler, the author of Siva in Rags, Pilgrims & Indians, Broke Nuptial Minds, Saint of Kreuzberg and other poetry / song lyrics chapbooks. You can visit him online at http://ajkaufmann.pl or at http://kaballahfreighttrain.wordpress.com.

Insane in Rome (2008) and Saint of Kreuzberg (2010):
http://erbacce-press.webeden.co.uk/#/a-j-kaufmann/4530637516

Vagabond Vacancy (2010):
http://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com

Pilgrims & Indians (2008):
http://www.lulu.com/content/4473070

Taint Funeral (by A.J. Kaufmann)

TAINT FUNERAL
by A.J. Kaufmann

Taint funeral
long passengers tasting their smoke
other hand birds
follow September districts
commentators
gaze
at panic stuffed rooms
shoot the monkey
the breath and crown
relative answers
fog blaze stairs
coconut church-bells
port of slunk days
bullets in bargain
turn attention to cottage reporters
sat to music
time tools past
up loudly
taint funeral
undiscovered eyelids
innocent-minded
pistols

* * *

A.J. Kaufmann  is a young Polish poet, songwriter and traveler, the author of Siva in Rags, Pilgrims & Indians, Broke Nuptial Minds, Saint of Kreuzberg and other poetry / song lyrics chapbooks. You can visit him online at http://ajkaufmann.pl or at http://kaballahfreighttrain.wordpress.com.

Insane in Rome (2008) and Saint of Kreuzberg (2010):
http://erbacce-press.webeden.co.uk/#/a-j-kaufmann/4530637516

Vagabond Vacancy (2010):
http://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com

Pilgrims & Indians (2008):
http://www.lulu.com/content/4473070

Accidentally Last (by A.J. Kaufmann)

Accidentally Last
by A.J. Kaufmann

My very best poem will be the last one
the one written in invisible ink
stuck between a row of dusty
Kadarka
bottles
& withered sunflowers
the one on some ragged
yellowed piece of paper
or the one written in wax
on Basquiat’s art
facsimile
or w/ chalk
on my favorite sidewalk
for someone who likes to play
hop-scotch

The one that will only express
my breath’s
vivid
holiness
the one accidentally found
by the new house’s owners
who’ll never know
a poet lived here
before
the one that went
to the dustbin

A poem to summarize
my anonymous
presence:
the disenchanted
final
doorslam
the 2 A.M. coughing
Cohen’s old songs
& your reddening
curls

A poem scratched on asylum’s
ceilings
w/ petrified
matchsticks:
a poem a lifetime long
the poem the straitjacket
hides
the poem w/ one word only:
“holy, holy, holy…”

* * *

A.J. Kaufmann  is a young Polish poet, songwriter and traveler, the author of Siva in Rags, Pilgrims & Indians, Broke Nuptial Minds, Saint of Kreuzberg and other poetry / song lyrics chapbooks. You can visit him online at http://ajkaufmann.pl or at http://kaballahfreighttrain.wordpress.com.

Insane in Rome (2008) and Saint of Kreuzberg (2010):
http://erbacce-press.webeden.co.uk/#/a-j-kaufmann/4530637516

Vagabond Vacancy (2010):
http://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com

Pilgrims & Indians (2008):
http://www.lulu.com/content/4473070

The Street Always Follows the Streetlight (by A.J. Kaufmann)

THE STREET ALWAYS FOLLOWS THE STREETLIGHT
by A.J. Kaufmann

The darkening lights of St. Anton’s cemetery swirl
line up
& crack
their
fog whip
pockets

As the street always follows
the streetlight
& the needle always follows
the vein:
the vein
that wasn’t there

I ate lunch at the padre’s grave
lit up
the cemetery lamp
lit up
the Havana
followed the lover’s
silhouette
groan

Threw the bastard
a sonnet
on his tombstone
the letters were gold
as his soul
was just
crow’s clipped wing’s
single
hand-clap

Sang some German
nocturnes
w/ the fool moon piano
shuffled Nico
almost saw
her

& continued to brawl
until I could clearly see
swift pale atmosphere’s
horses
arriving
& smell them
very
near
While the padre at poker
w/ the silver-eyed
vampire
paid no attention
& continued
to lose

The St. Anton’s so lonely at dawn
as the dew forms
its puzzles
& the rare visitors
stare
at the stone
deaf
sirens
in hope for
comforting
answers

& then they find me
sprayed all over
the stone
breeding
sanctuary
snoring
post-alcoholic
reviews

* * *

A.J. Kaufmann  is a young Polish poet, songwriter and traveler, the author of Siva in Rags, Pilgrims & Indians, Broke Nuptial Minds, Saint of Kreuzberg and other poetry / song lyrics chapbooks. You can visit him online at http://ajkaufmann.pl or at http://kaballahfreighttrain.wordpress.com.

Insane in Rome (2008) and Saint of Kreuzberg (2010):
http://erbacce-press.webeden.co.uk/#/a-j-kaufmann/4530637516

Vagabond Vacancy (2010):
http://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com

Pilgrims & Indians (2008):
http://www.lulu.com/content/4473070

Nonresistance (by A.J. Kaufmann)

NONRESISTANCE
by A.J. Kaufmann

I talk mostly to antennas these days
communicate w/ stray dogs
fall in love w/ lightning-conductors
avoiding the businessmen
shit pot
levitate myself above these bullshit
areas
above the clean white lie
the translucent one
the one that the radio spoke
of

Into the ever opening
meditating
rooftops
I vanish
w/ the howling silence I merge
I enjoy it
as predicted

Craving to become
the hermit clown
the possum
literate cleaner
alone in gray room’s corner

Primal magic searching wild one
lost one
mad one
blazing w/ all angels’ fury

I decompose myself w/ the run of
staircases
elevators
I catch the falling stars
admire the dawn brigades
order
my hands are full of holes
these holes are full of stars

I slowly breathe in all night’s perfumes
all the wicked little loves
all the lovely
wickedness
I learn to love
the unlovable
nonresistance

* * *

A.J. Kaufmann  is a young Polish poet, songwriter and traveler, the author of Siva in Rags, Pilgrims & Indians, Broke Nuptial Minds, Saint of Kreuzberg and other poetry / song lyrics chapbooks. You can visit him online at http://ajkaufmann.pl or at http://kaballahfreighttrain.wordpress.com.

Insane in Rome (2008) and Saint of Kreuzberg (2010):
http://erbacce-press.webeden.co.uk/#/a-j-kaufmann/4530637516

Vagabond Vacancy (2010):
http://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com

Pilgrims & Indians (2008):
http://www.lulu.com/content/4473070

Siva in Rags (by A.J. Kaufmann)

SIVA IN RAGS
by A.J. Kaufmann

We can’t help the dead elephants alley gates
can’t solve the mystery of their
burial
can’t even step closer
to their wedding
voodoo
where dice are of ivory cheek tears
collected as precious milk babies
while incense draws salvation
around crushed naked foreheads

Look how they gather, these mighty phantoms
if people were so majestic

Ah, but we prefer solitaire
in our dying
hosanna honey pots
choosing wrong wombs
of delivery

How can we balance the elephant’s weight
with a single
butterfly breath of soul palace?
that’s all the weaponry at hand
such fragile canvas
of our fragmented genius
feather weighted arms of possession

We are Siva in ruin
temples in collision
skulls of smog policemen

How can we stand against
their red lights of channeling
with our tiny white neons of alpha connective
experiences laughable
and force our pale reminders
to live again
as burial’s swirling reflections

We are all Siva in rags
we are all Siva
we are all
we are
we…
there is no one inside but the wind

* * *

A.J. Kaufmann  is a young Polish poet, songwriter and traveler, the author of Siva in Rags, Pilgrims & Indians, Broke Nuptial Minds, Saint of Kreuzberg and other poetry / song lyrics chapbooks. You can visit him online at http://ajkaufmann.pl or at http://kaballahfreighttrain.wordpress.com.

Insane in Rome (2008) and Saint of Kreuzberg (2010):
http://erbacce-press.webeden.co.uk/#/a-j-kaufmann/4530637516

Vagabond Vacancy (2010):
http://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com

Pilgrims & Indians (2008):
http://www.lulu.com/content/4473070