Potato Fleet
Potato Fleet
(Sound Poems from Rabelaisian Play Station)
I
Whose lush potato toggery computerizes futtock holes?
Whose dense potato papacy subjectivizes quarterdecks?
Whose worn potato majesty lobotomizes mizzenmasts?
Whose camp potato tyranny accessorizes powder pots?
Whose sweet potato liturgy immortalizes smiting lines?
Whose nude potato odyssey hyperbolizes galley slaves?
Whose tame potato heraldry economizes reefing hooks?
Whose mild potato gunnery transistorizes bumbledom?
II
Flagstaff escutcheons will carry the stabbing pins, trussing the hull. Binnacle kitchen meat fashions a bowsprit while sharking engulfments set dunnage aloft. If bullet bags sally and studding sails marry, which of the culverins ransack the head? Fleetingly, batteries overshoot banderoles, parcelling whips and industrial fans.
III
Here potato sea breeze ponders, clinging to the trestletrees.
Here potato war zones blandish, mustering the rudder staff.
Here potato bilge logs bear-hug, anchoring the pennoncels.
Here potato kingdoms mainline, shoveling the marlinspikes.
Here potato poop decks twiddle, punishing the bosun's call.
Here potato chain mail curtsies, harrying the limber strakes.
Here potato monkfish wisecrack, hitting on the orlop beams.
Here potato judgment sunburns, ripening the chowderheads.
IV
Watchfully fretting a blusterous tarpaulin, loblolly drifts. Belaying armadas play booty with rigging chocks; fireships and lading gin steady the luff. Are scupper nails mooring? Did forecastles parley? Is galliot biscuit bread sounding the depth? When ringbolts lay siege to outlandish equipage, the eddying cannonballs beat back the leech.
V
New potato quackery may scuttle fighting purserships.
New potato freakery must bloody chafing serpentines.
New potato lunacy would capsize kedging buoy ropes.
New potato poetry could pillage towing weather sides.
New potato heresy might convoy veering carrick bitts.
New potato irony should waylay drudging spindle jibs.
New potato mockery can torment horsing ladderways.
New potato trumpery will render yawing mollymawks.
“Potato Fleet” is made possible by a generous joint grant from the California Arts Council and the National Arts & Disability Center.
