<span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font><i>From </i>When Dylan Went Electric<br><br><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">At times the camera seemed to be revealing</span><br>






<span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">its own inner workings as subject & object. </span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">An argument with memory. </span><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">Pan slowly over rainy street. </span><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">Dark salt waves pulse. </span><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">The news man’s plastic face suddenly grown so sad & strange.</span><br>






<span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">The world outside was subject to constant paralysis – curtains were invented. </span><br>






<span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">The radio turned in on itself </span><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">(see camera above) </span><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">& beauty refused abstraction, </span><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">squandering all its silly money at the pawnshop, </span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">reveling in the flickered light. </span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">Never before had we been able to say what we were doing as we were doing it. </span><br>






<span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">We told all our friends & then they told us what they were doing. </span><br>






<span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">Often we were standing in lines. </span><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">This is how I remember the 21</span><span style="vertical-align:super;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">st</span><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"> century. </span><br>






<span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">Listen: some kid’s drawing of an exploding flower. </span><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">The poem you wrote once about her eyelashes. </span><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">How you looked forward to coffee. </span><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal"></span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">All the things that had nothing to do with disaster. </span><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">The town with its one water tower. </span></font>

<font><br><span style="vertical-align:baseline;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal">The cancelled sky. </span></font>

<font><br clear="all"><br><br><br><b>James Cook</b>'s poems have appeared in various print and online 
publications, including <i>The Cortland Review</i>, <i>BlazeVOX, Lake Affect</i>,<i> 
Scissors and Spackle</i>, and </font></span><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font><i>Colbalt Review</i></font></span>. His first full-length collection, <i>Moments at Point
 Light</i>, is in manuscript. He is currently at work on a book-length poem 
titled <i>The Croatoan Songbook</i>. He lives in upstate NY. </font>
</span><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>RealPoetik<br><a href="http://www.realpoetik.org" target="_blank">www.realpoetik.org</a>