Mel Weisburd Celebrating his Birthday

We'll celebrate the Birthday of the great LA poet Mel Weisburd and gradually post some of his wonderful poems and a Bio. This is in his honor, as a wonderful friend and poet, I will start with one of our favorite duets. I've had the honor of being able to collaborate with him poetically on several occasions! Here is one, we performed this together in Pacific Palisades at "Moonday West" earlier this year:

Mel Weisburd/Kathabela Duet: Disco/*in the mouth : *=Kathabela

DISCO

The languid octaves of the river
ripple into the sea
under the Christmas lights
of the upside down city.

*the lips/of the city hold me/I am/green and double green and double/ a pod/leaping out into the crossing

The mind in the body of bodies together
of a wheeling crowd.

*don't follow/anyone up over gardened rooftops/but languorous/let them all go by

Hands
on stems of awkward arms
like flamingoes merging and unmerging
in marble halls of space.

*stream of/knowing the throngs as I/hold open/gargoyle teeth the old architecture/implicit in /this smile/ double decker buses /red bins /decorated with all my friends

'I want to be out there
I want to be out of my cage
I want to be in the middle of a song
I never took the time to be a one man woman
love me, love me, love me, baby
you wrenched me from my head
sent me up the spotlight'

*come near me / I yawn in wind of it all/ going by like whistles


I search for the proper arm length.
to see her limbs, abdomen and breasts
dance before me
Our eyes catch as they pass
*catch streams/can you hear me as /you go /tumbling marbles in the big /city mouth
and I think we are about to surrender
but are disabled by the dance.
*wheels along sleek sound of/ undertone of/clicking boots and the crowd

With the slightest touch of hands
or the double look of eyes
of the parting of lips

*clouds waiting

I am pulled inside out
in remission from long illness

*you're here/ with me before/the closing /

In deep thought, I’m stationary
While she freely comes and goes
fishing me from the mystic sea
and placing the floor of the world
under me.