Distant parade drums and bugles
came as insect sounds
bird sounds
Onlookers
were the general vowel
Easy to reconstruct
a parade
harder to perform
mouth-to-mouth on reason
There were moving pictures of limbs
We ordered more all around
bought lottery
Nights were too you
the TV loud all jet screaming
sharp chalk The neighborhood
got in our dreams
not sure
about logic He was bad
so we killed his people
Crossing a bridge on a bicycle
you feel luckiest
in America
The parade down Wall
distant sirens came as sirens
We held our eyes
our ears our mouths.
Just so much fat to live off
the aria begins
just so much
sap indulged in the roots
a few acorns forgotten
under the national soot
so much wonderland
a can of borscht in the larder
Birdbath closed
inside ice
oak leaves suspended
in animation
between chill that harvested
coming heat that disassembles
When freights rumbled plenty
northward to need water
for birds trembled
in standing circular waves
Suntan Man was oiled
to the waist our own Picasso
look-alike corner agency
for tomorrows
His were always
sunny
darker toward nightfall
Now sky is late Vlaminck
He’s not under it
Where does he winter
Is it at the Honor Court Hotel
with the adjudicated
changing lives
shoveling snow baking turkeys
Maybe under a sunlamp
in a private Florida
keeping his soul tan
believing burning is good.
O dolor
beard mutters walking uphill
itself a beard
little tufts
old men can’t see to shave
We go in shade complete
with cold chicken
We say
obvious things tying
together this luxury
devoutly repaid
forever
Look at that
little redbud is a down payment
and
I hope this isn’t eating
not tough enough
Little Jinny shows up with
picture postcards of this very hill
Such redbuds
such shadows
where a small family
can eat in war
It’s always been
the beard the salty sea hiding
beyond the olive grove
winking
And now things
point at you for a change
Love fabricates mama and papa
After that it’s etcetera’s bush.