"Well, You Need'n't"

The music is pouring out
as fluid as rivers
and willing as gravity
to take us back
to grass and humble graves.

Such
ash brings its flowers
and the seeds of noisy heavens.

Glow, sweet halo at your head! Glow!

That's the saddest drummer's-face,
making clowns of angels
and other would-be terrorists--
those who'd tear us from our bones,
leaving no more trace than tattoo ink
to tint our smoke.

And what's with
the trumpeter-in-chief
and all his vicious pointing?
What's he need'n't?

Blow, steel halo at your lips! Blow!

Like Ikkyu's tree,*
twist the air out of tune,
slipping free
enough to almost be
intent and maybe mode.

Is it
for the time we are out of joint
with?

Well,
it's just
what I need'n't.

Me? The corpse
that swings between
what is and isn't and
asks such
questions.


*Ikkyu's tree: In Kyoto there was a very famous pine tree called The Tortured Pine (Nana magari no matsu) because it was so twisted and bent around. Ikkyu put up a sign just in front of the tree, announcing: "I'll give gold to whoever can see this pine tree in a straight way". Everybody tried to figure out how such a twisted tree could be seen as straight. Some people thought that from some angle the tree could be seen as straight. They looked at it from low and high. They twisted their necks around to look at different angles. After some time, someone told Rennyo about the sign. Rennyo, without seeing the tree, said that he knew the answer and asked for the gold. Ikkyu said that on the reverse side of the board was written the exception: "This deal is not valid for Rennyo". When someone asked for the answer, Rennyo replied: "The pine is straight in that it is twisted."


by jerry gordon
12.3.5
Anaconda's "Well, You Need'n't" at Savannah