Entropy's Eddy

Entropy's Eddy

From the bar,

we drove to the Hall in night’s sable shadow.

In the glare of the headlamps we saw

a blackbird by the roadside dying.

When we arrived at the Hall of Mirrors

we parked and hurried into light and sound.

Elbows akimbo,

we danced,

and time peeled back like an onion.

Oh, we were dazzling that night!

Smoke fled into cigarettes and pipes

and clap followed echo

as we took our bows.

After the show,

we piled into Ellen’s Mercedes

and raced to the bar.

On the way

we saw a bird

fly from a sporty red roadster

and into the waiting arms of a tree.

We drank absinthe and water, and

later we danced again

while the west paled in an early dawn,

and a blackbird cawed on the back porch rail,

speaking to us in time.

A flashy red roadster screeched into the lot,

putting to flight the bird and stopping all the clocks.

Still a while we danced in frozen time,

but the agents of entropy were among us,

and they started it up again.

Soon it was time to leave.

From the bar we drove west to the setting sun

till we came to the Hall of Mirrors
and the night began in earnest.

First published in "The Conspiracy Unmasked," 1994

Luminous Worlds reviewed

5-star review of Luminous Worlds https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/832166638

Eligible for Elgin nomination; on the Stoker prelim ballot

Luminous Worlds now available as an ebook

My book of dark poetry, Luminous Worlds, is now a $2.99 ebook at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Worlds-ebook/dp/B00G799OF0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1382882872&sr=1-1&keywords=luminous+worlds

Luminous Worlds

http://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Worlds-David-C-Kopaska-Merkel/dp/193712892X/

You can still get my Stoker-eligible poetry book, Luminous Worlds, from Amazon. Or, signed, from me.

Another poem from my new book, Luminous Worlds

Laurentia Burning

A singing in the south
the growing star
its blazing eye calls to you
its friendly winks promise intimate
revelations to come
its light, demure, drops from sight
the sky is clear
and you resume the breakfast hunt
you pause again
and cock your ear
immobile, there is
a singing in the south
a quickening rumble
a great shimmy
and a new sunrise
your train is coming
your iridium, your epitaph
your last, hottest, most memorable
winter's day



Note: The poor dinosaurs never knew what hit hem. Unless the dromeosaurs really DID develop an advanced civilization before the end.


Buy Luminous Worlds through Amazon, or, signed, from me.

http://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Worlds-David-C-Kopaska-Merkel/dp/193712892X/

Or, Paypal to jopnquog [at] gmail [dot] com $13 postpaid

Sample poem from Luminous Worlds

Luminous Worlds, my new poetry collection from Dark Regions Press. www.darkregions.com or http://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Worlds-David-C-Kopaska-Merkel/dp/193712892X/

Here's a sample


Dragon Wind


The City covers a trillion square kilometers;
why create so much artificial real estate?
Existing planets, stars, wouldn't do?
Wind conjugates the verb abandon.
We do understand emptiness, failure,
we've been those places,
but not on this scale,
wind, spiraling through barren streets
like the breath of dragons,
scouring clean what was never soiled,
making new what was never old,
this place is not a place,
those who built it never lived here.
A million blocks encompass all
imaginable forms of architecture,
after that, more of the same –
a hot reptilian wind
howls through the gaping windows
to which it laid claim
a million millennia ago.
How many cultural detectives
have been through here
and found what?
We do know this:
no one knows who made this place,
no one knows why.
Someone or other is always looking:
surely there's a trace,
surely there is a discarded wrapper,
desiccated residue of passion,
graffiti,
surely something has left a mark,
something besides us,
we who come, who go,
who take no comfort in
the wind from an unseen dragon.

Got my copies of Luminous Worlds

They look fantabulous (if that's still a word). & you can order them here: http://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Worlds-David-C-Kopaska-Merkel/dp/193712892X/

from the vault

The Conspiracy Unmasked



"Take a letter," he said

To a small lump of lead,

While the typist reclined on the couch.

"Address it to me,

"And refer to the sea,

"And tobacco that's kept in a pouch."


The sensuous fern,

Wove in its urn,

A tale of drunken disorder.

The clock struck fourteen,

Said something obscene,

And the cuckoo performed it to order.


He slumped to the desk,

So she stripped off her vest,

And draped it on top of the door.

She then followed suit,

Except for one boot,

With the rest of the clothes that she wore.


She reclined in the nude,

And thought about food,

While the cuckoo clock started to smolder.

The bird gave a leer,

And murmured, "my dear,"

"If only I weren't so much older."


"Where's that letter?" he cried,

With eyes that were wide,

And he leaped to his feet in a fright.

He could see that she knew,

It was inside her shoe,

"Could you help me? It's just a tad tight."


He pulled the boot free,

She said, "goodness me,"

As he staggered and fell through the glass.

They found her in York,

Drinking gin with a stork,

Two penguins, a duck, and a bass.



"Oh no," she protested,

"Don't have me arrested,

"I betrayed him, but not of free will.

"The cuckoo's the one,

"It did it for fun,

"And because it is mentally ill."


She spoke at the trial,

For quite a long while,

But the clock took the fifth on the stand.

The girl was acquitted,

The clock was committed,

For such was the law of the land.



Title poem of 1994 Dark Regions Press collection (my third chapbook)