the amsterjamboree 21

By Frank Light

1. winter wonderland
amsterdam
bikes, ice skates, and trams
low fares, no one stares
weather nippy, sunshine iffy
sidewalks slippery, noses sniffly
skippety hippies swathed in layers
civilized as advertised
and be advised a tavern lies upstairs
shelter from the storm
a helter-skelter swarm
of scots, brits, danes, and locals
maple-leafers getting vocal
barmaids and barmen
but mostly americans
dropouts, cop-outs, veterans a bit scruffy
active duty in mufti
bussed in from the east
close-cropped hair no mousse no grease
v for victory as well as peace
weekend pass here for a blast
no shave no makeup
no masking the cleancut
double digits and a wakeup
snowballing, heehawing, seesawing, freefalling
all in for holland
where even scuzzy is clean
wearing orange, scarfing caffeine
proosts to the hosts!
long live the queen!
the dutch have the touch, cool in the clutch
no hassles, castles, or scandals
just tulips and candles
cruises in canal boats
cold cuts for brunch
pea soup for lunch
with waffles and falafel
guilders, gouda, and edam
or you can go indonesian
meatballs from an automat?
already thought of that
hostels with grub, 24/7 pubs, elbows to rub
but listen up, bub
herein lies the nub:

2. we are doing our part
just
doing it smart from the sidelines
hell, read the headlines
could be the front lines
fighting that cold-war angst
staring down ivan’s tanks
arrayed in ranks
aimed at us yanks
so enough with the flak
we’re your plucky motherpucky humpty-dumpty plumbers plugging the gap
covering your back
taking one for the team
gotta blow off some steam
skim us a little cream, a bit broad in the beam
quaffing, sloshing
noshing, joshing
our favorite haunt
no dues no daunts
a jaunt not an odyssey

isn’t it astonishing?

3. could have been the fifties
seventies, eighties, or nineties,
but it was december 1968,
prague had its spring, paris its barricades
mexico its massacre, america the assassinations
a sampling of symptoms not to mention vietnam
lacking the words to summon it
being too soon for books, too far gone for the tabloids
you fire off postcards to coeds at the alliance francaise
collect their responses at the next american express
breakfast on bread and espresso
pay for it with red cross blood
there are those who need it more

4. amid the raucous rowdy boys
a sloe-eyed wac an island of poise
equilibrium intact
or is that mere reticence
common-sense hesitance
ivory-soaped skin glistens like mannequins
as she listens to the transient men
glass boots full of heinekins
on amstel coasters
with brandy shooters
boasters toasters boosters
goosers juicers cock-of-the-walk roosters
here to find or be found
another round all around a fountain of sound
redounds, prolongs the revels
rouses the rabble
inspires an outlier prematurely retired
commission expired, retroactively wired
zeitgeist denier and nobody’s buddy anymore –
just a recalcitrant civilian understudy – 
into taking a flyer, joining the choir
getting off the slab, shaking off the flab
salving the scabs, trading the drab
for the glib of gab
stab in the dark walk in
the park off on a lark
yet to make his mark, barely disembarked
tales from the ark
twice told
dice rolled
sixes sevens
odds evens
second cousins by the dozens
once removed
nudged, soothed, much improved

5. could be me
let’s call him you
or let him be he who
might have been one of them
out on a limb
he was, they weren’t
once burnt
powder dry
spectral eye
scarecrow stance, baggy pants
shabby shirt, shaggy hair
incipient beard
not all there not yet here
then he stirred, spurred
another country heard, undeterred
the clique demurred, speech slurred
punchbowl turd, fun-house mirrored
blurred litmus
fitful fitness, no contrition
state’s witness, not a victim
not the system
split decision twisted wisdom

6. spokesmen dissemble
the company whine
protest resembles a war of the minds
cities disassemble signs of the times far from the edges
where might has its way, ledges where night drifts
to day, hedges where white
sifts to gray, and social awareness
is the ground always there to touch upon
nearness a concept that quit
leaving little to forget
forgive or forgo
a lie those standing in for you should know
whether to die or not die for
much less live for
or simply discharge and ignore

7. the premise of menace
once thought to be endless
now hints of heresies, deviant tendencies
unraveling new lines of travel
with life such a puzzle why not break from the huddle
splash in the puddle, bedazzled, befuddled,
scamper, scuttle, skedaddle, and swerve
lean on the curves
easier on the nerves
better than deserved
customs observed, honorably served
ruck chucked, bucked up
cut your luck or make it up
give and fake it like a joke
have a toke hoof a hike thumb in dike what’s not to like?
junk the grumps, the shoulder slumps
take your lumps, relish the chumps
embellish the bumps, cherry jumps, rosy cheeks
frosty feet humping the streets
replete with buskers, hookers, hawkers, directionless sleepwalkers
wooden-shoe cloggers, ethnic jewelry floggers
teutonic draftdodgers, human windshield defoggers, beatles bootleggers
bootless men of letters, one-legged beggars, gypsy teenagers already preggers
give them their due, there’s nothing to do, it’s not about you

8. if they ask
say you’re over it
salt in the wounds to flavor it
halt in the tombs to savor it
hey, you paid for it
make way for it
bit by bit come to grips
with no quick fix
no chippy chicks over-equipped
with swivel hips, pips for lips, totes of tricks
stick to script
quotes and quips
wit and grit
sip don’t chug
skip the drugs
nip it in the bud
euphoria incapacitates
jenever exacerbates
jukebox agitates
abstention captivates
she who animates
while he who could be you vacillates
makes his move
before she approves
and sets them off
bets off, game on
he freelances the expanse
synchronous dance
survive and advance
she knows his name
and anonymous is not the same

9. reawakened
point taken
claim staked, aim straight
keepsake key in keyhole
blocks the peephole
releases the pre-soul
it’ll return, soft and stern
when least expected
undetected
in disguise, cold as ice
coal for eyes, inexplicably wise
doughboy to doughman
hug it like a snowman
feel it melt
or feel it harden
beg its pardon
or let it go
let it rise like dinner rolls

10. order
cries out for orders
boundaries and borders
buy-in, tie-ins, incentives, and discipline
or policemen to enforce them
legal contortions
corporate consortiums in ever larger proportions
and therein lies the gist oh no they insist
cease and desist
the principals are so pissed
no more slaps on the wrist

don’t they wish

11. delayed
cognition sketches apparitions
within plastic dimensions and a pseudo dementia
rejectionist aesthetic a general anesthetic
frenetic, kinetic, erratically energetic
magnetic realignment results in
attraction and repulsion
interaction and propulsion
group cohesion fused adhesion
change of seasons among a range of reasons
friction, tension, diminishing vision
missing mission

12. home
for a month
after one became two, father said
whatcha gonna do?
your uncle dan has just the job for you
get back in the swing
give it a go
give him a ring

13. driven
to strangers for want of dangers
absence of agony
essence of sanity
pretense of anomie
lessens the panoply
under the canopy
where ghosts are galloping angels gamboling
anger dandling parties wrangling
synapses scrabbling through fissures and melodies
whispers and codes demons and gods
prickers and prods pathways and roads
encompassing the globe
instantly
any and every trajectory
if not here if not now, it’s reverie

14. were vermeer’s veneers
meant to tease
as rembrandt the sycophant aimed to please?
anne frank, ohh would it happen today?
would you stand in the way?
sickles and stars
stripes and bars
blues and whites and red all over
tear down the enclosure
there’s a cost to composure
a complex to closure

15. on closer inspection
facial features suggest connections
coordinating like crosswords in a foreign tongue
strings unstrung cannot be strummed
though songs unsung may still be hummed
last stung, first to run
from the silence of the din
our first-person historian of uncertain origin
bores in past the praetorian guardians
just as the red-headed heroine
calls a moratorium

say it’s preordained don’t lay it on her
bare to the bone heir to the throne
it’s what she represents
which is what she resents
love to repent loathe to atone

16. dropping dimes
on conjured crimes
the compensatory paradigm
for those who never showed, nothing owed
no first stone, that bridge is blown
what’s done is done you’re on your own
move on

17. down the stairs
the door
beyond the pane the pale
before the rain the hail
down the drain the sea
a deep-sixed history
underwater mystery of indeterminate periphery
as neither wave, shore
nor days of yore
has answers for
long-lost wars
the martial arts a world apart
asia aphasia
europe optional
underemployed and overemotional
all of it negotiable, devoid of devotionals
tranched into quotients demographically chosen
free of im- and ex-plosions
shrugging off slogans corrosion and erosion
corruption and consumption
run-ins, love-ins, groupthink dungeons
begrudging dudgeon, mutually assured destruction
motion a powerful potion
but not a solution
revolution on the list
absolution hit or miss

18. our provisional revisionist
fascist anarchist
flashes eurailpass
languishes in first class
on the lam
from I think ergo I am
doesn’t undo what you did
when both ego and id fled
in their stead amsterdam central
cross-continental sleet now falling
berlin calling
a gnome, an elf
pack on shelf
practicing stealth
compartment to himself
stale and bleak, yellow streaks, corridor reeks
sink leaks, where’s the mystique?
must be some mistake, window semi-opaque
reflection transparent, disaffection apparent, recollections adherent
to the past on a parallel track
creating space at a variable pace
narrowing gauge against a widening stage
the routes diverge
and reconverge
encroaching age
around the bend
parallax end
flawed beginning
a faulty underpinning
for one alone
two if any
three too many to explain
chitchat a chain on a gasoline truck
feel the draft a raft run amok on a raging river
a ride on the rails never fails to deliver

19. whoosh
a woman enters with a sigh and a shiver
bag and baggage, no common language
except the french he can mispronounce in a pinch
incarnadine sweater, scarf, and lips
black as coal coat, skirt, boots, and stockings
she slowly unbuttons, all the while talking
en route from Paris, la université
liberté, égalité – sees her breath – humanité?
oh the hilarity
going home for the holidays
to krakow, snow, family, and fiancé
she hasn’t seen in a year
she’s a student, an aspiring engineer
unwraps the scarf with a flair, sweeps her hair
short like her skirt
not a flirt, an extrovert
a performer who thought first class would be warmer
he informs her the heat is off
she stifles a cough
the conductor checks her ticket, adjusts his cuffs
second class, he says, that’s two wagons down
she smiles, she fidgets, the conductor frowns
his hands lift like an orchestra conductor’s
kindergarten instructor
reluctant sorcerer himself spellbound
touchdown arms brittle as porcelain
hold off – she has a champion
her companion notes the compartment seats six
christmas coming, give her a pass
the conductor grimaces, it didn’t use to be like this
pas de sièges, she pleads, deuxième classe
the man flexes his fingers, it’s late, as is he
the dutch are straight but given to amnesty
with a heave of the chest, a nod in arrest, he leaves

20. she smothers a sneeze
her seatmate offers bread and cheese
she wine and chocolate
pidgin polyglot
all night they’ve got
as brick by bloc
cloak by frock
the curtain parts
in fits and starts
should chance remarks
ignite a spark
fanning flames
fun and games
remember, it’s not the realities
it’s the possibilities
the positioning
the transitioning
from points where lines intersect
to where you don’t know what to expect
and so you have to accept
it’s living not lives that endures
what’s theirs isn’t yours
nor yours theirs, ours if you share
nobody cares
who you were or when
now is negated, already then

21. where you’re going
is in like zen
is it ever again
the universal sprawl
big bang writ small
formentera crete and marrakech are far away
and where the seekers are heading or so they say
and they say what they mean
until life intervenes

****

After retiring from government service (including two years in the Army), Frank Light returned to the love of writing that led, long ago, to an MFA in fiction. In recent years a number of his poems, stories, and essays have been published, including a poetry chapbook titled “Far and Away” published this May by Finishing Line Press. Many of the essays draw from an unpublished memoir titled “Adjust to Dust: On the Backroads of Southern Afghanistan.”