Clockwise Cat Strikes Back

Three poems
By Alan Britt
Author bio: In August 2015, Alan Britt was invited by the Ecuadorian House of Culture
Benjamín Carrión in Quito, Ecuador for the first cultural exchange of poets between
Ecuador and the United States. During his visit he did TV, radio and newspaper
interviews, gave presentations and read poetry in Quito, Otavalo, Ambatto, Guayaquil
and Guaranda, plus the international literary conference sponsored by La hermandad de
las palabras 2015 in Babahoyo. His interview at The Library of Congress for The Poet
and the Poem aired on Pacifica Radio, January 2013. His latest books include Lost
Among the Hours: 2015, Parabola Dreams (with Silvia Scheibli): 2013 and Alone with
the Terrible Universe: 2011. He teaches English/Creative Writing at Towson University.
JAM
A journal called Scorpion Lunch,
or Jeff Beck jazzing,
glass tubing his Fender —
rusty-headed mermaid stumbles
into expectations, yet
.OooooooooO.one senses the end
could be right around any given
corner at any proverbial moment,
so, why not trace his “Coy Mistress”
to “Approximate Man,” to “Foam,”
as though a groaning cello gave this
young nymph permission to step
from a coconut rolled beneath a West
Palm curb, I don’t know, say, 1956
aquamarine gecko, lava-colored
shoulders inflamed by someone else’s
imagination, thus, disturbing a string
quintet spawned by an anarchist with
special affection for British blues,
database undressing behind
stained-glass window, & quartz
tears falling from heaven
morphed into famous red-veined
sprouts from Amsterdam.
In the end, it comes down to lips
kissing black plums, lips stained by
enthusiasm, organic or otherwise,
lips that think a perfect strawberry
is the meaning of life.