“dep sesh,” “sadhu,” and “Missus Oxygen Kisses Mister Dynamite’s Heart”

“dep sesh,” “sadhu,” and “Missus Oxygen Kisses Mister Dynamite’s Heart”

Gerard Sarnat

Image
Photo by Nathan Nichols on Unsplash

dep sesh

–RIP William Hurt (1950-2022), star of 1980 Altered States sensory deprivation tank body horror flick

­­–kudos to Donald Glover’s 10Nov22 final episode of Atlanta’s concluding fifth season, It Was All A Dream

loci of suffering’s

my measly attempt

to lower stress level

a crying need warns

me off phantasmagoric

pathologist’s post-mortem

although do have pocketbook

issues I’ll try to stay course for

Ger being held very capaciously

so that last resort boy can find shelter

warm toasty harbor bred with nada burnt edges

thus durable butter buoyancy ain’t taken for granted

while all of us fellow travelers hopefully float up ‘n forward amen

sadhu

once family

neither needs

nor wants me

any more & so

they open up our cage

set you free with henna

loin cloth + biksa bowl

to go beg for daily meal

til now when grow too old

then wear down on the road

I can’t take care of myself thus

am brought back to rejoin their fold

before gaunt fragile Gerry ferries to another side

Missus Oxygen Kisses Mister Dynamite’s Heart

The country music station plays soft
But there's nothing, really nothing to turn off
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind
– Bob Dylan, Visions of Johanna

Halfway back down these invisible stairs
high above earth, wizard of spacetime’s
relentless liquid imagination guzzles
helium stoned up there in thin air
before he begins circular descent
into deeper despair to celebrate
around the forgotten families’
wintery solstice hearth kindle
on all Christmas Tree Lanes
where Santa plus rain deer
gather to bless Tiny Tim
Scrooge and me depends
on their mood; whereas
girls decide rightfully
to dump just on moi
one male chauvinist
Chanukkiah bush
unkosher piggy
who does not
accept those
martyr sorta
archetypist
Missy Joan
of Arc-ers
bah hum
bug jeez
can’t find
no knees
etcetera
amend?
amen.

About the Author

Gerard Sarnat

Late-phase often graphic poet arrived in seventh decade, aphorist, humorist or sometimes meanderist; Gerard Sarnat’s a multiple Pushcart/Best of Net Award nominee. Activism Through Poetry: How Gerard Sarnat Uses Verse as a Form of Protest is a 2025 retrospective. His work’s been widely published; including four collections; by Rattle, London Arts-Based Research Centre, Israel Association of Writers in English, The Nature of Our Times/Poets For Science, Gravity of the Thing, Brooklyn Review, Tokyo Poetry Journal, Gargoyle, New Delta Review, Buddhist Review, New York Times, Oberlin, St. John’s University, Northwestern, Yale, Pomona, Harvard, Missouri Baptist, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia, Grinnell, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Brown, North Dakota, McMaster, Maine, British Columbia/Toronto/Chicago, Virginia and Alabama university presses. He’s a Harvard Medical School-trained physician, Stanford professor, healthcare CEO. Currently, he’s devoting energy and resources to dealing with climate justice, serving on Climate Action Now’s board. Sarnat’s belonged to the longest-running U.S. Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Group. Gerry’s been married since 1969 and has three kids, six grandsons — and looks forward to future granddaughters.