Three Poems by Dan Cuddy

From the Alphabet poems

T Is For Time

T is for time
the ticky-tack tick tock of it
and T is shaped like a cross
both large and small
we, creatures of Time,
are stretched on a T
bake in the sun
rot terribly as the earth turns
and turns and turns
and turns
and we
in a rotisserie
cook our flesh away
our hope away

Truth also begins with T
we are taught this
as we shrink
stretch tight
on the cross that is Time
tears are vinegar
technology only hammers us
further in the tough of times
teaching us that truth
is small, individual
hangs perilously in the mind
attached to the body
and that body just a piece of meat
tortured by the tests of technicians


U

I am in your U
captured
can't climb out
I ululate
from your trap
O I M underground
the upshot
is that I am so uplifted
but not enough
to escape you
if I wanted
I don't want to be away
from U
I am water in a well
used
but usable still
boil the "un" from me
you can
you are utilitarian
as well as romantic
and C
I M
sociable now
sophisticated now
stable
savory
fit
gracious
it is U
who have dunned
the un
from me
and it wasn't a pester
but a pleasure
I O U


V A Letter That Contains So Much


virtue?
void of virtue?
vamp
or vestal virgin?
vixen?

v begins at a point
divides into two directions
so totally divergent

V
Pynchon wrote a cartoon narrative
V was a TV series about aliens
V in the movies stood for Vendetta

but various as the words the letter leads

v is intimate with the idea of woman
and women themselves monologue it

to a man
V is always a veiled mystery
a temple of volcanic fire
and home warmth

how divided a man's desire
for woman
first the virgin
the undeniable proof
of fidelity, of fatherhood
this untouched, pure virtue

how in ages past
the selfish man took
like property
the virgin
and the sheets of vivid red
were like dawn

but still
how a man
wants the uncivilized
verdure
of nature, pleasure
the vim, vigor
of almost violent
devotion, love
love-making
the intensity
of the color violet
the rich
luxuriousness of it
oh, the force of pencil
checking a V
into the paper
the divide
of fiber
the victory over vellum
the language
of the body, of the entire being

into the vestibule of mystery
a man knocks

and where
in these later days
the animal dressed in suits, dresses
jeans
so much vivid truth
is veiled with delicacy
perhaps even denial
the vacuum of a V
sucks the pulse of man in
and a woman is made whole
and the race runs its natural course
the V
is a Holy Spirit
truly with wings

----dan cuddy

Bio

Dan Cuddy is currently an editor of the Loch Raven Review. In the past he has been a contributing editor with the Maryland Poetry Review, and with Lite: Baltimore’s Literary Newspaper. He has been published in many small magazines over the years, e.g. NEBO, Antioch Review, Connecticut River Review. Recently he has had poems online in Praxilla and in The Potomac. In 2003 his book of poems “Handprint On The Window” was published by Three Conditions Press.