COPA


(This immense crooked beach
shaped like a boomerang
guilded in dim lighting:
hits me.
Waves splashing over white sand
misty horizons of mountains
the humidity of the air;
I'm sitting.)

Constant Multilingual Chattering:
loud Americans arrogant Germans
abstract Japanese (bloody tourists)
carefree Cariocas the timid Dane
yet more men arrive:
holding the Dollars, the pillars of the Game

black kids surviving
wiping grey windshields white
the poor wiping the rich
nothing new on the site

Strutting Busoms in Slow Motion:
everyone trying so hard to
look seductively innocent yet
uniquely interesting with
proffesional casualty
impatiently drinking watching waiting:
for the human miracle to go on sale

street children playing
laughing yelling screaming
taxis waiting cars sputting
lonely gringos dreaming

kissing couples shoeshine boys
discreet waiters checking chopps
sporty fairies young transvestites
junkie dealers checking cops

The Art of Staring Without Looking:
explicit brown breasts in
deadly white lingerie
flashing uneven teeth behind
deeply red lips of the
lonely black faces those
big black eyes:
When will we be approached?

car plates and totems
maps silly toys
teddy bears ear rings
balloons for the boys

the dropping of peanuts
loud samba bands
street peddlers beggars
money changing hands

In the Company of Whores:
playful childish girls
unashamedly approaching
dancing teasing staring
indiscreetly whistling
gossiping kissing giggling
whimsically intimidating:
Beauty is recognized by being impossible

Instant photographers seedily smiling
Offering memoires of lively beguiling
"Seetee here meester, where do you stay?"
Big man with cane whipping beggars away

Young beauties kissing ugly old men
"You lookee for girlfriend? It's no ploblem"
Very chicque hairstyles in so! sexy dressing
Yearning expressions and -oh! self-caressing

Black eyes (again) smiling and looking
Sirens parading inviting and hooking
High heels big busts lips open and longing
Red boots proud postures: Come, Easy Coming!

pssst:
"Friend you are here? I lookee you allover."
"Hellooo you haff oone cigarett for meee?"
"You nao likea me? Lookee this!"
"You haffa ploblem? You nao likea girls?"
"Whatsyiernome?" "You vant? You vant?"
"Hey meester, you pay me five thousand,
you havea noo ploblems!"

O! the shapely arses
of the luscious bodies
of the mulata girls
of the Copacabana bars!

...in abundance...

And in the midst of life is found
The poet Dane noting profound:
They observe me, they measure
Their business my pleasure
Their feelings no bother
One man to another
All men are the same
Their life is their game
Their shame long destroyed
Hearts of the void.


Steen Schapiro,
Bar Mabs, Copacabana 061092