OPEN AIR / Has Anybody Seen St. Francis?

For Beniamino B. Bufano

Has anybody seen St. Francis
Where have you gone?
Has anybody seen St. Francis
Where have you gone?

I know you were here
Not to very long ago.
I know you were here
Not To Very Long Ago.

St. Francis Gone
With Gray whale gray whale
Basking in the Bay
GRAY WHALE
Basking in the Bay

St. Francis Gone
With Salmon leaping salmon salmon
Coming up coming up CREEKS

St. Francis Gone
With Loping Grizzly Bear cub cub cub

St. Francis Gone
With Antelope bounding Antelope
Bounding Antelope

St. Francis Gone
With Bunch Grass Bunch Grass Bunch Grass
Taller than a man

St. Francis Gone
With Coyote
quickening steps

St. Francis Gone
With Condor
Wheeling
Condor
wheel
Condor
Alight
Corona
Heights

St. Francis Gone REAL GONE

Has anybody seen St. Francis
Where have you gone?
Has anybody seen St. Francis
Where have you gone?

I know you were here
Not to very long ago.
I know you were here
Not To Very Long Ago.

St. Francis with his cart
Waiting for the light to change

St. Francis in a bed of newspapers

St. Francis looking looking looking ALONE

St. Francis giving a sermon in a dumpster

St. Francis going going going unnoticed

St. Francis on line
At St. Anthony's

Has anybody seen St. Francis
Where have you gone?
Has anybody seen St. Francis
Where have you gone?

I Know You Were Here
Not To Very Long Ago.
I Know You Were Here
NOT TOO VERY LONG AGO.

__________________________________________________________________________

The Doorway to Hell
Is 438 Broadway

The Doorway to Hell
Is 438 Broadway

You'll know
When your there

Sick Lilac is its Look

Sitting
Atop
The
Gutted Dreams
Of
The
CHI
CHI
Club

And behind it the hill of Purgatory
Being jackjackjackhammered

SLICK NICK'S CRIB

Is the Legend
Written
Above
the
Sutted
Gate

I waited for the Prince of this Darkness

& a tight leather wire biker from Elsewhere
strutted out CONTEMPT
& a micro Minnie slapped her flesh
and went in

& SUSPICION WALKED BY

I waited for the prince of this DARKNESS
by the garbage outside its door

His Corpulence
Came

Grabbed the can
Looked Cross
Took disdain at me

I showed him the Badge of Dante

That I was Here
To Assess
His Dire Kingdom

I followed him up his filthy steps

He was the dark corner
He was the cul de sac

Those he kept bowed before him

He took off his head
He took off his chest
He took off his legs
He took off his arms
He took off his hands

Turning
Into
DARK

The Very Torque
Of
DARKNESS

He WHIRLED Into
His Private Wing
And then I went about to Ascertain Hell

Doors with Great Locks upon them

Doors closed for years

Asking after the hovel of endless regret

Asking after the hovel of endless sorrow

Asking after the hovel of endless despair

Asking after the hovel of NOD

& I knew the Burnt Out Human
SYLVIE
Whose
Door
Was
Open
To
Her
Nakedness

& I knew the Burnt Out Human
ROSE
Her Lamentations Over
Her Dying Cat

And The Prince of this DARKNESS

With his own Wing of Pleasure

5 Private Rooms
For himself
His concubine
And the privileged service
of his chosen
servants

Servants that were his tenants

Dwelling in
Filth
Outside
His
Hallway
Door

&
Blind
Window

& Behind this HELL

the HILL of PURGATORY
with the Tower of Mercedes

Sandstone & Shale
crumbling
CRUMBLING
C R U M B L I N G O F F

No Matter
The workers that tie Hill with Steel Cables
Anchored to Broadway

Crumbling
CRUMBLING
JackjackjackHammering

& the last room of Hell
held a 16 year old student sent by his parents from Tawain
to prosper Here

This in the time of the Martini Bars of Broadway

Recede
To the
CHI CHI CLUB
Honky Tonk

Recede
To its Empresario Showman

The Accordinist who drew in crowds by his Ballads of Fear & Longing
In a Broadway Alley
And made enough to open the CHI CHI Club

When Sailors were the true citizens of North Beach

KUSH is Director of the Cloud House Poetry Archive, an internationally acclaimed video record of American poetry for the past forty years. His forthcoming book is entitled LIGHT BUILDING MIND.