From his geodesic dome on the Monterey Peninsula
Turquoise Seth speaks on the phone though time to the Desert Fathers
The voice of one crying in the wilderness
Seth speaks but is not heard
Because he’s too hip
too cool
too Goth
too sly
He went to live in the mountains
Turquoise Seth hears the voice of the Lord
in the burning tenement
A voice in the flame says
“Take off your basketball sneakers and step closer
you won’t stumble through the rubble
your feet will keep cool”
But Seth is too Lower East Side
too renounced to bounce back
too much locust and honey
too much pillar of fire
He went to live in the mountains
The tenement burns but is not consumed
The voice of the flames speaks to Seth
“Lead your people out of the South Bronx
take them over the Triborough Bridge
to the land of Manhattan”
But Seth is too rave
too mud
too jive
too fly
He went to live in the mountains
Seth speaks on the phone through time and says
“Concrete sand in the urban desert
the A-train keeps me up all night
the ghetto is the desert where we wander
eating wild locusts and drinking Budweiser beer”
In the morning the people gather free sample coupons from MacDonald’s
Those that are not consumed by the end of the day are not saved
But are thrown into the fire as an offering
But Turquoise Seth eats no fast food
Turquoise is too new front line
too far downtown
too much bad attitude
too far from home
He went to live in the mountains
From his geodesic dome on the Monterey Peninsula
Turquoise Seth speaks on the phone through time
To the desert fathers
Damn the nuclear reactor
Let's turn it off
Edmond Chibeau is a performance writer. He believes we are Microchip Aboriginals, living in the Ur Civilization of the Digital Age. He blogs at “Blog Chibeau.” He has been published in The Nation, Multicultural Review, New England Theatre Journal, The World (published by St. Marks Poetry Project), and EAR Magazine, California Quarterly, and Santa Barbara News Press. His work has been performed at Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Hall, The Mudd Club, The Knitting Factory, NoSeNO, The Ear Inn. He has worked with John Cage, Alison Knowles, Kenneth Rexroth, Allen Ginsberg, & Charles Bernstein among others. He received his Master’s degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at Penn. and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He teaches scriptwriting at ECSU.
Originally published in the FALL 2018 edition of the Helix.
