Another character who always drew my attention, and therefore had to be reckoned with in words, somehow or other. I hugely enjoyed his two two books, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think? when I read them years ago. After all, how many scientific geniuses have also been bongo players and safecrackers?

Richard Feynman

Before the spin un-densing,
 the Point pre-exclamation
  rockets into Being…

I Galaxy’s Child

We are each part of that Point, you and I
Nothing has ever changed that possibility
Which clusters do you romp now?
No local group could contain you –
 drummed back into the Continuum –
  which mortal constraints fall to next?

You, non-locally connected,
 splash color on the radio days
Bongo boy, never still, ever fresh,
 awash in today’s drum machines
  that would drown me out in my turn

Let’s continue the Infinity Drumming Circle,
 be Shiva’s dance band
It wouldn’t compute, but
 large-scale fun!

II Knights Errant

We each lie in that shadow, you and I
 of the day everything stopped –
  music, and time,
   rhythm and life everywhere
Before the neutrons – radiant active dancing,
 the Sun’s extermination
  shatters into Mourning…

Kind humans vanished in that fireball
What kind of humans vanquished them?
What? on Earth?
My Goddess, man – what have you done?
What twisted Genesis –
 oh, never mind, but never again!
How turned such genius evil?
Who turned Truth to such murder?

Why couldn’t you just
 have made better windmills –
  and then lanced those,
   instead of boiling the Yellow Sea?

You roasted in that secret, unjust desert
Charged with a mission,
 fission for an Enemy
Somebody’s gotta pay – now
Everybody will have to pay – ever after

III Courting Jester

Before the seatbelts unfastened,
 the point of exploration accelerates
  and rockets into Oblivion…

We each aspire to this distinction, you and I
All-knowing Fools would be
You modeled the part,
 shook your bellcap
  at the king/idiot/bureaucrats
Become the true Challenger in that official mock-up
 (another bloody infernal farce fiasco)
Did you find some solace, some redemption?

Whatever parts you engineered
 took a smash when you dropped the rubber ring
  into that glass of cold water
   televising one more official couldn’t-care-lessness

Confused genius, creator/destroyer –
 your stories are lovable/laughable
You’re a polyrhythmic sandwich
 we’ll never quite theorize out
Like a Black Page – tricky to read

(5/14/96)