I Don't Know Do You - Roberto Montes

Today's book of poetry:  I Don't Know Do You.  Roberto Montes.  Ampersand Books. Gulfport, Florida.  2014.

"Sadness is capable of great acts of beauty".  Sometimes, all it takes is a line.  I read this line, I was hooked.  But there is no certainty here.  Everything Roberto Montes says is a question of one type or another.  His answers are questions as often as not.  His statements are questions.

We've all been in a room where there's a really smart guy/gal riffing brilliant, regardless of what they are talking about you find yourself attracted to their orbit.  Welcome to I Don't Know Do You.

Love Poem for Secret Weather

Do you really want me

to tell you about that night

on the mountain? How we slept

right through the snow?

Melted right to the placid jaw

of the earth? How it felt

in the mountain's cheek?

Two pebbles burning underneath

the riverbed? How the river

was boiling because of us,

because of our opinions

of the sky? What keeps it

way up there? And why

hasn't anyone done anything

about it? How even in sleep

I saw you settling toward me?

Light a weight directing us

from inside our trunks?

...

These poems are not surrealist, although you might get that impression, they are hyper-real.  They have the feeling of authentic moments, those myriad disconnected and disjointed seconds that make up the reality of time.  

Breaking News

I have decided to give up

everything and take up ending

matches in the sink.

They will discover

my head in the marshes.

They will discover

they do not like my voice

until it is inside them.

Yes, I am taken. Yes, I am a grocery

filled with bees. Pollinating

what you think of March.

Pollinating the empty basket.

I have the confidence of a child

fainting as he climbs the fence.

Therefore I am attractive

to the earth. Consider this

when you rub dirt in my ears and hair.

When you let me know

you've never been in love.

Bullshit. Everyone's been in love.

then I fall violently in love

and have to make out

with everything, even my tormentors.

The laundromats. The cul-de-sac

circling my sternum. The way we wet

snuffs the cellar of an afternoon.

No, I don't have a job.

No, I don't have a reason

to walk through the development.

But anyway I walk. I want to mean

beyond myself. I want

to seed the fearful gladiola.

Because anyone who is unafraid

will never understand

how warm a vowel can be

as you hang four-fingered off

the roof. How I am called

noiselessly down. How I pitch

Earl Grey into the streets.

...

Montes can sound lyrical, romantic, Kurt Vonnegutish, splendid, mad, magical and mystifying — all in short order.

In some respects these poems read like a popular amusement park ride.  You never know quite which direction these poems are about to throw you, but you've paid for the experience and are certain to enjoy the ride.

Why We Should Get Married

November stumbles out of my mouth

and into yours. You take my heart's wet mop

and dance with it. You participate

in a field of starlings. You have many talents!

You use them all against me. You stay

up all night planning my downfall.

From what? this pitcher of azaleas?

I'm best friends with azaleas. Joke's on you.

The joke is a fat Chinese lantern

lighting up your sternum.

Soon our chests are buzzing

the whole time at the supermarket.

Soon every last petal is carbonating

underneath our tongues. My startled scalp

occurs to you. It is perfect for holding

things aloft. You are sleepless

all over the brunt of it. You build a lake house

on top of it. We invite the outside in.

We shake hands with all our neighbors.

We are polite and not on fire and so

are forgotten by everyone.

We don't know what to do about this.

We find a creek and we tiptoe

strangely into it. We swallow water

and bite glistening salmon chunks of air.

We follow each other all the way home.

I surprise you with a poppy field

in bed. You surprise me by waking up

on fire. For the rest of our lives

we put toasted poppy seeds on

each other's tongues. It feels

like I am rolling down a secret hill.

I am happy. The sky stands up.

...

I can't pretend to understand all that is going on in these poems and the examples I've chosen don't necessarily best illustrate the full range that Montes lays out here.  Montes range of interests and alacrity will offer all the intrigue and challenge a reader needs.  But there is nothing wrong with a challenge.  These highly entertaining poems offer as many questions as they solve, nothing wrong with that either.

Both playful and deadly serious, Roberto Montes stakes a serious claim.

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