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LITERARY NOOK
T.O.A.S.T.: Telling Old Age Sonnet Tales
Inspiration for this poem comes from Elizabeth Bishop, U.S. Poet Laureate 1949: “the armored cars of dreams contrived to let us do many dangerous things” and a painting by 15th century painter Hieronymus Bosch, Tondal’s Last Vision.
In the Armored Cars of Dreams
Protection, perfection, putridity, and perfidy inside your head
myriad mesmerizing selections while staying home in bed
falling in and out of love, dreadful and delightful daydreams
falling sound asleep, before waking state, in sleep very deep
deep inside Elizabeth Bishop”s armored cars of dreams
reside volumes of laughter and night fright screams
REM speed developing, enveloping detriments and improvements
time and temperature differential doesn’t seem to matter
Tondal’s Last Vision scatters, splatters, pitter pitter patter
walking on a wire, a wheel of death revolves slowly on fire
a bed of glass, a bed of nails, a barge of death as dreamtime sails
east of Tinian dropping into the depths of the Marianas Trench
fumaroles, lava flows, a whale blows, submerged sulfuric stench
high seas, high speeds, polar bears plead, addicts need, ice feeds
typhoons terrorize the night, sea birds in flight circling to the right
jaywalking, running across melting polar ice, shooting loaded dice
and so inside the armored cars of dreams I sleep and so do you
so real, surreal, beyond reality, false memories, and some true.
Jose ‘Pepe Batbon’ Connolly (Special to the Saipan Tribune)
Joey “Pepe Batbon” Connolly is a retired teacher and has been named a poet laureate of Tinian. He has taught English in CNMI public schools for the past 30 years. He has also taught in Alaska, New Orleans, and Las Vegas.
