Poetry by Charlie Zender

1

A Midriff Riff
for the Men of Unity
Exquisite pearl furrows wink "Hello!" Distracting rifts, tan-locked waterholes Overwhelm male circuitry, cinder it Flesh calderas smoulder in pre-eruption Point oblongingly to dusky oyster lagoons I lose steering control, swerve, bump into an utterly immobile lamp-post But I always walk, so nobody is injured Navels seize Time, disrupt maps, reverse poles Blurring purpose like Vaseline and cheap lenses Bending Time's arrow into an hourglass Bellyfull putty craving smelly hole Nothing modest, coy, or incidental here A last landmark lost navigators trusted Terra incognita beyond attracts me, beware! Upriver drumbeats thrum doom and rapture Midriffs mark roots' joinder into our trees They define public terminus, private property Lycanthropy emerges, civil intent ceases Compel me to masticate, clench, stroke, sleep Honeypots do murder unconscious trespassers Who, invited, respond, unheedful of danger, Of jealous-eyed companions and frail smiles My eyes explore that sexy rift of landscape Girls reveal, challenge, open, feel me enter

Laguna Beach and Unity Church, Tustin, California July­August, 2003