All the way home
dangling simian
from the mini-gym
at the bus's ceiling
swaying and swinging
with the avenues northbound
and damebound and singing
yet haunted
by the sleek motion
of her remembered walk
off the bus I'd missed
and downstairs flight
toward me
then up the street
away from me
lessee...one hundred and twenty-seventh avenue...
twenty-seven short blocks ago
and a five-minute wait at the bus stop
and a two or three-minute stare
at her diminishing back
yet her every motion held
and here made
indelible.
She stepped off the creamy bus with the steely trim
right in front of me--
my bus--
and she looked at me
looking at her just long enough
for her glance to ask,
"So...do you know me as well as that gawk
of yours says you do?"
and I stepped back
and missed my bus
as my eyes eyed her departure.

Leathers and feathers,
and silk,
and metal and ladyskin
and ladyhair down and loose
and her walk made her hair to move
as I knew her breasts were moving,
a series of oscillating
spherical moments,
rolling as her back spiralled up
over her pelvis
as it thrust each forward motion
into a drumbeat feint
just a minim ahead
of the tapping of her heels --
so fast, such a hurry.
She must be going to unify all this art
with my song;
she must be rushing body-long toward a tryst with a lover
as ready for her as I
in this my wilder dream

Sheer fabric smooths.
defines tendon of Achilles
and subtly flexed calf ambiates
symmetric
I imagine the textured foot's ligatures
stretching
the instep's intervals
and moving skin into ripples
as a tidal current leaves the sand
but only for the mini-breve her step takes
then all above is orchestra
providing harmony for the syncopation
of her spiked metronome
it speeds up--
or slows down to pace.
This audience
is enthralled.
The great flux of vision
and harmony:
Have a buttock in full flight
flex and relax
at a pace
just a touch behind
the swung hand
fingers stretched
nearly flexed
to grasp
swimming
in the
spring air
detached in a wider arc going
then a rushing pull on the breeze
coming back to fro
and spangled wristlets
tint the air
with brazen glow
darkly sparkling

and triangle-song
against the golden ring
at each ear
and chained bangle
oscillates,
easily pendulating
from breast
to swelling breast
as motion perpetual
each way free
and I? I miss my bus

So here I stand
near the end of my later bus ride
holding my briefcase
up
in front of me
so that the seated commuter facing me will not know
of my dream-muse
etching my slacks
with its viscous drop
of drying damp
I feel not even an iota
of anything but a great lusty desire
that, here, now, sets me apart...
from this busload
of bland hoi polloi.

Web Design by Douglas Elves. Water reflection photograph by Linda Jennings.

Dean Morrison McKenzie

McKenzie's a kid from the village; it shows in his themes. His poetry, fiction, music, films and essays are laden with imagery gathered from the world that surrounds small prairie towns. So far he has co-authored two or three chapbooks, read his stuff on public radio and has had his voice used to record commercials and training films. McKenzie's first CD, "Prairie Hejira" was published in 2001 and on November 23rd, 2003, at The Yardbird Suite, he and the band released "The Silver Apples of the Moon". He also wrote the script for "Skipping Stone" -- the AMPIA-award winning film produced by Frame 30, and recently Michael Hamm screened McKenzie's "Night Benz", another short film based on the prose/poem included in this chap book. It was awarded a Silver Medal at the Houston International Festival of Independent Films in the category Jazz/New Age/Spoken Word.

When asked about life as a retired English teacher, he refers to it as a bus man's Holiday. "I've been editing the work of others all my life; now I'm smoothing out my own roughnesses."

Watch for his next chapbook, "The McKenzie Chronicles" and "The Jazz Poet" CD is just around the corner along with a loosely connected series of short stories about the "Urbaniginals". McKenzie is also working with MaxMedia to produce some poetry/art/music videos with the collaboration of Alberta post-modern impressionist Wayne Schneider. Wayne's paintings create moody graphics that reflect some of the darker aspects of McKenzie's themes; the corollary: McKenzie's poems reflect Wayne's angst. Andrew Glover's synthesized keyboards will accompany "His Recurring Night Terrors" in the performance poems.

The submissions in this electronic chapbook include pieces that you may have read, heard or seen elsewhere, but they were nearly all published on this web site or in the Stroll Archives before they made their way into recordings, public performances, hard copies or film scripts.

POEMS

Lysergia: The Day of the Ergot

INDIAN SUMMER HAS GONE

The Wild Cattery

A Dance Danced

John O'Winter

Equinox -- Long Beach

Modestly! Modestly!

Honouring Christian Bok

Shades of Another Time

Another Pedestrian Poem

Etching the Blank