Chapter Time
poem by Klyd Watkins

Because the living room did not lie down a super highway,
Spike had to put up signs to have the big trucks detour through.

Judy and Linda would giggle and squeal like at a horror movie
waiting for the ZZWOOOOOMMM and
waiting to stick their cheeks into the v of the wind wake.

Neofunk said, to no one in particular,
“Myth is the highest form of knowledge..
Berdyaev reminds us Plato recognized this.”

Phospher, to not interrupt this, wiggled his eyes for his wife to go
get him a coke
but she had been gargling neon and was busy speaking signs unto them.

Judy fixed up a puppet that Linda worked.
When a truck came,
ZZOOOOMMMM,
Linda dropped the puppet smack into its face.

Breathlessly they pulled the strings to see if it would rise again,
as the big truck disappeared down the road.

Phospher went after his own coke.
Neofunk continued, “Temporarily,
poetry is where myth
quickens from knowing into music.”

ZZZZWOOOOOMMMMM
said the red
sign Phospher’s wife
blew into
the air. It took off down the road after
the red truck.

---

Klyd Watkins’ first chapbook of poetry, pete’s improvizations [sic], was published by Owl’s Breath Press in 1969. During the seventies he produced ten lps of Poetry Out Loud with his wife Linda and with Peter and Patricia Harleman. These records are still collected. He has alternated between writing poetry and creating poetry by direct audio recording of improvisation. Since the ’90s he has sometimes combined the two, using text as well as improvisation in his recordings and publishing written poetry. His CDs include Listen The Night, as part of the band What Are We? with Mike Panasuk, and “Harp All Made of Gold,” which presents chapter one of his long poem Jack spoken over world class rock and roll. Books include Ghost Trees from Sugar Mountain Press and 5 Speed from The Temple.
His own poetry and that of friends, both well know and never heard of, appears on his website: http://www.thetimegarden.com/
http://thundershack.net/ is devoted to his backyard recording studio.