amid the aftershocks of riot
its suppression a tsunami
amidst this degradation
we must work & build together
first food, then language
linked & mirroring
let each one be rebuilt
we shall feed together
our needs are simple & ridiculous
they can be matched & will
satisfaction within this present
a rich meal cooked up together
that allows the return of each thing
but lets it sound aloud
you must hear such lovely detail
gritty & gnarly as we are too
yes there are risks, demands & needs
answered in every language
let us test it with art
high art & children, then
noise & dirt, too – these
we must use to build from the rubble
to make them into something real
touch them, let them touch us together
improvisation of course entails doubt
because it is never complete nor as expected
like the continual start of voyaging
each moment may change the task
for the light may open as
a glowing screen – ah! Windows
your ungainly tastefree literalness
becomes joyful, a sign of reassurance
for entropy will eat the clock
but we do live within its eddies
turbulent & turbid, silt
abrades, accumulates & burgeons
strange things the people walking this new
land
dangerous, ridiculous & endangered
after the riots & the flood
let’s laugh about this stuff & start
“high art & children”: John Berryman, somewhere in his later poems - I'd welcome the precise source
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