Kinda (type cast to a closure that won't dye)

Kinda

I say "kinda" a lot, lately,
lazy for “kind of,”
like how persons or poetry
are beyond type.

I know there is an industry,
sophistication
in posing letters on a page,
giving alphabets

as many lives as their readers.

From Arial to Helvetica

(flighty to Swissy,
air of flight,
cheesy of humor,
holes in my theories
of life, love, and light;
or veteran etiquette
tickling surface of erotica –
svelte
or felt)

From Bazooka to Cezanne

(sometimes faking,
of having a blast,
or shot
at wild party –
fizz of cola, or champagne,
campaign
to get attention of her across a room,
heiress of Champs de Elysses;
or hotels of Ritz, casino
cards, die and chips
tossed and stacked –
one eye on the table,
the other across the room,
at who she’d rather
toss, stack on whim of bed
and tumble)

To Serific, or Courier New
(calligraphic pattern of short,
calculated strokes,

subtle of view
in the making,
then graphic
length on skin,
depth in soul;

until, after last breath
before sleep
from exhaustion
of dip and kiss;

her dream becomes memory,
stroke
of heart pausing

eye to eye across a room)

Vagabond to Verdana

(typography of grunge,
sophisticate of graffiti --

perhaps I’ll type cast my own,
Sophia of Loren,
Tucker of Sophie,
elegance to rib-tickling ribald

like front line

confrontation)

From Verdana to dot matrix

(the way Chuck Close
turned Polaroid portraits --
pixel rather than the pen,
the brush or the chisel
into wall-sized paintings,

dotted pattern
up close, devoid
of intimacy)

From Fortuna, a look of hand-textures,

(though probably more funds to Close
than Monet’s party scenes on a lawn,
view of river bank,
trees more alive, leaves
dabs of paint,
complexion of faces
methodical in dot placement –
embracing loveliness
from a happy life
more detailed in painting
than camera.

No illusion of chameleon
lies in a photo

in the era of manipulation,
of pixel and slant.

I vary in what I want.)

To Cuckoo, then Intrepid,

(I’m attracted to bold strokes,
or watercolors wet
enough to soak through a page –

fatten up a journal
like it had a life,

never for lack of meat
or drink –

wet dreams

sustenance of getting on,
riding a train
to the next town

or mound,

hungry all the time.)

2006 Vermont College / Melody Berning