King Leopold's Slow Leak

“In these twenty years I have spent millions
to keep the press of the two hemispheres quiet,
and still these leaks keep on occurring.”

*Mark Twain
'King Leopold’s Soliloquy'

Remember Abbott and Costello
Stooges
21 Circus Rooms
And Their Names
The $50 Rabbit
The Tin Man’s Trouble
Johnson Dracula
The Tin Elizabeth
Eddie Risk
The Chinese Dog
Quarantine
Enlisted Cantaloupes
600 Souls
Stop It
Chaplin Books
Charlie Soo
Out Come The Cellos
Drydock
Linda Johnson
Ocelot
A. Robins, The Banana Man
Slow Leak
George Returns
Hap
Eddie Bracken
The Chinese Thumb
Moon Buggy
Poplars
The Werewolf Notes
Venus Hum
Ed The Frog
Start Over Again
Empty House
William Blake
Another Wind That Blows
Rosa Says
The Ugly Cat
Other Yard
King Leopold’s Slow Leak

Remember Abbott And Costello

Remember Abbott and Costello
when the two of them stumbled
through our room with a
television set rocking it
in slow motion back and forth
tipping in the socket and
turning the antenna towards
Canada and beyond

They wondered if
the cable still worked
we could have free movies
if it still had reception
sometimes that happens
but the static fowled
that plan and they laughed
at the snowstorm formed


Stooges

Excuses run to the horizon
promises he’ll be by soon
to nail the carpet ends down
replace shingles lost to the wind
but he has troubles everywhere
a ghost haunts another rental house
his spine needs a shark bone put in
the washer and dryer he brought
still needs a heating element

I had to turn it all off
collect everything he ever said
out onto the lawn and spraypaint
Curly, Moe and Larry on them




21 Circus Rooms

“Constructed by the Pullman Company
in 1950, sold in 1970 to a circus,
converted to 21 small rooms
for the performers, it toured
the country for 23 years.”

And Their Names

Egyptian Giant, The Living Skeleton,
Double Bodied Wonder, Sword Swallower,
Moss Haired Girl, Human Skye Terrier,
What Is She?, Bearded Lady,
Tattooed Man And Woman,
East Indian Dwarf, Marvelous Pig,
No Armed Wonder, Japanese Lady Magician,
Armless Girl, India Rubber Man,
Great Exhibitionist, Human Pin Cushion,
The Georgia Magnet, Glass Eater,
Human Calculator


The $50 Rabbit

Who would have known what we paid
to get where we are, that desperate
on the other side of this counter
we signed over travelers checks
and he gave us a toy rabbit prize
for a list of houses and apartments
that might rent out



Johnson Dracula

How about Johnson Dracula? An unfortunate
vampire with shoes that squeak so he’s never
able to sneak up to bite anyone’s neck
and too humble polite to attack.
“Excuse me my dear…I thought you
were somebody else.” He backs off.
Sallow and skinny, he has to go
to the greasy spoon diner
and order a roast beef sandwich.
The waitress notices him and knows,
“Here comes that nut in the tuxedo
who sucks his sandwich.”
Johnson passes the time,
napkin tucked under his chin
looking out the window
while the moon shines
above the neon signs.



The Tin Man’s Trouble

The tin man’s trouble was a boxspring
mattress, bought surplus after a war
when he was no older than you.
A family, a wife and daughter to
support. He must have half thought it
part of the victory to buy that swayed
brave thing and his daughter took to it
silently. Night after night on its coils.
The tin man’s promise comes after
years when he’s selling used beds
from a warehouse on Meridian.
His daughter is somewhere grown
a little mean, old as a willow from
the days that bent her when
she was green.



The Tin Elizabeth

The Douglas firs give way to
a narrow daylight door on ferns
where a statue is formed

She is made from things found
on the crushed folds by the road

Like thoughts of the rocket age
The Tin Elizabeth goes up
catches and cradled it rests
in the telephone wires




Eddie Risk

Wouldn’t you know
I met him again
while getting gas
this was years ago
and he had a crumpled
sort of car, but he’s quieter
than ever before
and he asked me
“Don’t I know you
from somewhere?”
and it was true
flash and I was there
tromping through
the gravel pit
searching for gold
like pirates
and later on fights
the playground terrors
words and whatevers
the schoolbus shook
with Alice Cooper
and eggs thrown
from the bridge
all so far from
where we are now



The Chinese Dog

Caught in the arms of the laurel tree
on the handle of a moss covered branch
he watches down the silver gun barrel
beads on something moving under leaves
covered in calico fur, slow with the world
wandering the neighborhood, smelling wind
the Chinese Dog ignores the popping caps
the eight year old is shooting from above
to pause on flowers below




Quarantine

The school clock on the wall
in a spotlight seems so slow
pushing around

The students are guided
in a blackboard chant

A window is open
just enough
to slide out

The air is sweet with Spring
drum and guitar on a radio

Gliding like a bee
over the lawn and
parking lot, away

The free flight ends
over the road into
a gray building

Chaff through
air conditioning

A room is crowded
with table and giants
moving around

Another clock
pens and pencils
filling paperwork
it’s the same again




Enlisted Cantaloupes

George is in his seventies and he mows our lawn
just the narrow strip of grass thatching the alley
the rest grows tall around our house and waits
for me waiting for the right time to arrive.
I finally caught up with old George
after he was done one day
and we talked under the maple tree.
He told me stories and then he took
out his wallet to illustrate one.
On the island of Tinian in 1945
a B-29 stretches silver across the runway
three engine mechanics work in the shadow.
With trembling finger George explains
that one had a wife back at home
she mailed him cantaloupe seeds in a letter.
George points at the halved out
incendiary bomb shells lining
the right side of the photograph.
You can imagine them starting to grow.
George can’t remember the man’s name
it was another time, so long ago
but he never forgot what happened
when all the cantaloupes were ripe.
That mechanic stood his ground
when the officers raised hell
“These are just for the enlisted,” he said
and he made sure that they got them.




600 Souls

The pollution hung over the city
in a thick sea. Sometimes it parted
to let the hot sun beat on everything.
June 29th, the factory shut down.
The electricity costs were too much.
The city used to pour it to them
for nearly free until a vote forced
them to admit. So no surprise,
gates shut, 600 jobs stopped.
The mayor scurried to give
the factory back its power,
black smoke out the stacks
and blue white sparking
in the windows at night.
The next day morning rose
the factory opened metal doors
to let 600 souls back in.




Stop It

Here it is
set your alarm clock
toss and turn with warnings
it’s a world of worries
you call that dreaming?

Presenting images
of what happens
when day after day
after day empties

The work-a-day world
will get you in the end

All the hours
wasted like a lie
makes you wish
you should have lived
instead of died


Chaplin Books

His room in the trailer was a square
metal hollow, the walls had pictures
torn from Chaplin books. A hook
on the door held his loud costume.
Plaid clothes, a white rubber headpiece
with yellow hair wigged on, shoes
not untied before he went to bed.
They stretched red and long as boats
moored off his feet.
Out in the parking lot rain,
the last cars were leaving, their lamps
yawned over his dark wall like searchlights
or shooting stars. He took off his look
of wrinkled thought and dreamed.


Charlie Soo

A ton too big to be a kid,
Charlie Soo goes from
one neighborhood park
to another, putting himself
on slides, or swings,
or monkey bars
and breaking them.
Then he sues. What a guy.
He makes a living this way.
A bus pass. An apartment,
with a hot plate to cook
his food on.


Out Come the Cellos

A sky blue car passed by carrying
the driver and sitting beside him
a cello. And then a truck with one
in the cab and more travelers too.
Everyone drove with a cello as if
it was a law. Either that or
the fashion of the day. And every
other store along the road is a lure
for the curved wooden passenger.
Just wait until night when all
those engines stop along the hills
and out come the cellos.
Drydock

Like a boat in drydock
our daughter’s mattress suspends
across two chairs in the backyard

Sun and shade of green maple
a warm breeze will help

It is June of 2000
she is learning to sleep
without waking up at sea




Linda Johnson

I took advantage of Linda Johnson

Each morning I would wave goodbye
at my parents house and walk a block
to Linda’s house. She had a color TV
a warm breakfast and a ride to school

That’s all she meant to me and
after third grade she was forgotten

In other words, the last person
I expected to see walk into my room
was Linda Johnson

Not much had changed about her
except for her size, nearly four times
bigger than I remembered.
I stepped back from the doorway
in black and white slow motion terror

“What’s for dinner?” she asked
finding the sofa and taking over
pointing at the TV screen,
“Anything good on?”




Ocelot

When he rented an apartment
he told the landlord he had ‘a kitty.’
It was quiet and sleek and its spots
had a lulling hypnotic power.
The truth wasn’t revealed
until the cat marked its territory
on the radiator vent. The smell
drove all the other tenants outside
at midnight onto the chopped lawn.
They stared like moths as the ocelot
came out. That was the end of its stay.
To its way of thinking, the jungle
was forever gone, its home of walls
was always shifting, there was
something very wrong with the world.


A. Robins, The Banana Man

He came out onto an empty stage
in a huge black overcoat
the size of a billowing garage
wearing a giant Groucho wig

With the orchestra playing
he proceeds to take out
collapsible furniture
from his coat and person

By the end of his act
the entire stage is filled
with things that weren’t
there before




Slow Leak

It doesn’t help
having a boss like her
riding you all the time
from eight to five
week after week

She lets out the air
living inside you

And it takes hopes
going home and dreams
to find the strength
to start over again




George Returns

After finishing high school, he was sent to training
and flown around in a B-17. There are pictures of
him on the lawn in Peyote, Texas, hamming it up
like a movie star. After a few flights, the pilot
decided George wouldn’t make it as a career
gunner. George got sick holding the machine gun
at 30,000 feet. The plane went on to England without
him. He stayed on the ground, repairing engines.
He wrote to his old B-17 friends and waited for replies.
When he received a letter, he read how the entire crew
was lost over Germany. No more has ever been known.
George was assigned to the 504th. The bombers he
worked on flew to Northern Japan and dropped
mines in the sea. The war went on. He lost planes.
There were a lot of them. They all had names and
wore paintings of women. Lost. Then all the officers
suddenly left; something so dangerous was about
to happen they moved to another island, miles
away. Mystery arrived. A single bomber landed.
It would carry one bomb to Hiroshima. Nobody
knew what would happen, either on Tinian or in
the wooden houses and streets of the Japanese
city with one day left.




Hap

Hap parked his car
in the garden
by the road

the blue jays parted
on his way down



Eddie Bracken

A wooden stage and movie screen
on the sand of that island
waiting for him to arrive




The Chinese Thumb

On his way back to the docks,
nets to repair or whatever,
he got caught in a police crossfire
and his thumb was shot off.
It disappeared clean off his hand.
No expense was spared to repair
their folly since it was a Federal affair.
Doctors huddled all night grafting
a new thumb on. It worked.
It even had feeling touched to a flame.
It only became obvious when
he explained and held it up close.
It wasn’t quite a thumb at all.
In fact, it was all that could be
found at the time: the big toe
from a Chinese man.


Moon Buggy

He has spent a lot of time doing this
his wheelchair is on a pedestal
a sort of wooden height
made from pallet boards
nailed together to make a ramp
lifting him to the screen

He’s not rich, he spends
his time in quarters
playing himself
to high scores
on the moon




Poplars

Poplars
are
where
orchards
were
memories
fields
lose
into
now
roofs
tin
orange
brown
green
surrounding
everything

The Werewolf Notes

The forest changes
and shifts
and disappears

A man is lost in it
Venus Hum

These machines are quiet
they talk from room to room

when she stirs in her sleep
or calls out from dreams

her mother replies


Ed The Frog

Ed the Frog
a steel frog
on a big spring
in the gravel
at the park


Start Over Again

Slurry ground
left over
from machinery

start over again
knock every factory
off the planet

start over again
you should know

water and land
lends a hand
everyone can learn
how it feels
to begin again




Empty House

Empty house
listens to me

without you
hears a heart
missing you




William Blake

The music plays
paint dries
prayers
wander
wherever
they go




Another Wind That Blows

Our daughter
who is three
asks about death
after we stopped
in a cemetery

the closest place
we could find
for her to pee
driving fast
it’s an emergency

this isn’t a park
the cut of the lawn
no somewhere to play
she wonders at stones
set up in rows

what can I tell her
we’re only here
for a little while
and when she’s done
we get back in the car
and go

Rosa Says

The sun is a moon
daylight hasn’t come
I’m going to keep sleeping
stay in my dream

night and day go
it’s all up to me
I’ll see the world
how I want it to be

So when you say
time to go to bed
the moon is a sun
I’ll stay awake instead

The Ugly Cat

The porch became its home
day after day and nights too.
Not because it was getting food
or the best shelter in the neighborhood.
The whole thing was a mystery to Martin,
he didn’t know what to do
about the ugly cat, attached to
the wood sills of the porch like
a barnacle with crooked eyes.
Other Yard

When we lived in that other house
remembering a few years ago
our daughter learned to walk

Whenever we were outside
under the clothes flapping sails
on the windy lines off trees
she would drive herself wobbly
on to the other yard next door

The grass was all wooly around
the rickety swing set bones
standing like a dinosaur
with a slide bowing down




King Leopold’s Slow Leak

The air let out
joining whatever

world was left
a sigh above skyscrapers





cover, writing & pictures: allen frost
written summer 2000