I'm glad to see he is still writing...
2:49 p.m. | 2001-11-28
Down by the Tarzan Ropes
It is impossible to see beyond the property line,
Down by the split and dying trees
where my brother and I had tied the long colored knots we called
the Tarzan Ropes.
Swinging on that name
Swinging on those ropes,
we could be Tarzan
As we had seen him.
Not too far away is the burnt out redwood stump,
a structure of smudge, where enveloped I was kissed at 6 -- but She and I
Stopped for lack of more to do.
5 years later, I was punched in the same place,
my only fight begun
As we had seen but Stopped for lack of more to do.
Most novels,in part, take place down by the Tarzan Ropes.
Every song borrows the dusty yellow of the sunbeams,
or the greenblue grass to get their point across.
Countless poems have referred to the authentic trees and real vegetation --
Bolts that hold in place the round square model
made of equal parts imagination and memory:
A shape framed completely by the poison oak,weeds,and trees
That render it impossible to see beyond the property line.
-Rider Strong