Poetry by Anthony Madrid

Lisa Perry, soprano
Jeff Zeiders, drums


Marfa Songs

On moonless nights, the giant saguaro become their own shadows.
Their spines (porrect, acicular) have only the potency of silhouettes.

Saguaro

One day the dragon will ascend angrily from the river down in the cave.
Who lives on the mountain will hear the sound of an uncoiling battleship chain.

One day the dragon will ascend angrily from the icy river in the cave.
That fire-breathing dragon that can only be killed by a naked man.

Dragon

Most living creatures leave no ghost, and even if they do it's totally useless.
Whereas, one can knock a hole in a brick wall with the ghost of a material object.

Ghost

War-weary general, manfully squinting into the sunlight,
Call back your invincible armies. Show mercy to the heathen peoples.

Heathen

I am going into the prayer room; I am intent on saying a prayer. I have
Memorized the unrhymed sonnet that begs forgiveness of those we love.

Forgiveness

I'm gonna throw a rope around this building and haul it up a hill.
I'll bite my teeth into the rope and flex my neck and pull.

Rope

How long must she be your lover before you can recognize her by her gait?
By the shuffle of her sandals as she goes up the stairs with your rival.

How long must she be your lover before you can hear that it's her,
Though you're in a landing airplane, and she is just stepping out of her bath.

Rival

Beneath your parents mattress is a stairwell leading downward.
The bed is like a door on which your parents knocked to summon you.

Mattress

I shall sit atop Olympus; I shall juggle dying worlds.
I shall trifle with Great Hatreds and toy with Young Love.

Marfa Songs

james david young