tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156725942024-03-19T05:54:51.053-06:00RHE poemsPoems by Richard Epstein. Not much commentary, only one picture (sorry, Alice), and little disruption: just a place to find poems by Richard EpsteinRichard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.comBlogger573125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-13764773836167607322024-03-19T05:53:00.003-06:002024-03-19T05:53:59.839-06:00Plot Points<p> </p><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">It
wouldn’t take me long to build</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A
monument—to stuff, then gild</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A
cassowary or a grub,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">To
stain a fence and plant a shrub,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Install
umbrellas all around,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Stick
Latin mottoes in the ground,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And
plat the place with a snazzy name.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><a name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-size: medium;">Of
course you would have died of shame.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Much
better to lie in the dark,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Pretending
night is a private park,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Charming
the mob away, who knew</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Nothing
of me and less of you.</span></p><br /><p></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-78403584312323964692024-03-15T05:18:00.001-06:002024-03-16T04:33:45.845-06:00Catching the Ferry<p> </p><p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Last
night the Truth Ferry</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Put
in as I slept</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And
left a verse in bed</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And
took the dime I'd left.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">It
wasn't printed neatly</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And
neither fine nor fair.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I
read it only when and where</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">No
one else could hear.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">This
is the way the worm</span></i><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">—</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I
wonder how it ends.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Bangs
and pine and dirt</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And
pale segmented friends,</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Perhaps.
I am afraid</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I
can't write in my sleep.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I
cannot hear the sound</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Of
what is taking shape</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">In
dark rooms growing darker,</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Quiet,
humid, dumb.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">To
every boy and girl</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">At
night a truth will come.</span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-8781636006583520392024-03-11T04:49:00.003-06:002024-03-11T04:50:42.716-06:00The New Roadmap<p> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I
lived here once. I know</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">which
streets went where. I ran</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">where
this lane starts to go</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">to
the left, where it began</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">to
carry another name.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">So
I am not impressed</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">by
maps. It's not the same,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">your
sketch. I think you messed</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">up
my reality.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Where's
Archer? Appleton?</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
dogleg at du Pres?</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I
know now what you've done,</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">you've
gone to see what's there.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">You
stood on my home ground</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">as
is. That wasn't fair;</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">taking
a look around</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">alters
the memory.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">It
warps the past. It preys</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">on
what we say we see,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">It
relocates what stays</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">to
house, then to maps,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">till
we avert our eyes,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">as
though all routes collapse</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><span style="font-size: medium;">below
misfigured skies</span><span style="font-size: medium;">.</span></span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-54689709012780249042024-03-06T05:32:00.001-07:002024-03-06T05:32:54.065-07:00Changeling<p> This appeared in <i>Staple</i>. </p><p><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">If
it isn't the roof, the plumbing's goes,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Or
the showerhead, or the parakeet. Like that.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Sometimes
the years of dry, furnace-forced air</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">will
shrink the floorboards. What was glossy, grays.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Sometimes
the one you turn to isn't there</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">in
the bed; or perhaps she is, but gone</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">to
ghost, and you can never be alone</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">more
than you are right then, which is enough, thanks.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">They
told you nothing stays, claimed, as you found,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">that
change is what there is. But this is less.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Everything
leaves, but not entirely:</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">the
bird's cry from the elm tree high above</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">the
dust of rooftrees laid down many moons</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">rouses
the form whom you still try to hold.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-45221082671893598652024-03-01T04:47:00.008-07:002024-03-02T04:05:47.094-07:00All Tales Come True<p> </p><p> <span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Is this one of those historical moments—</span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The Siege of Stalingrad or Johnny Van-</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Der Meer's 2nd? Decades hence, a hundred,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Two thousand years, will people say, Her linen</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Shift fit like May between the spring and summer?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">No one can tell what Helen did in bed</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">To make her Paris spring. The men who lay us</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">End to end in expensive cardboard jars</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Know squat. They can't wait to be shoveled ash.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">You pivot on the spike heels Dr Jekyll</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Says women shouldn't wear—poor torque-sprung backs.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Your hair fans a like a runway breeze was blowing.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The men besieged behind their shattered walls</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Drop their boiled leather, wave their horseplume hats, </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And scatter condoms from those famous heights.</span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-50572074415485783382024-02-26T04:35:00.000-07:002024-02-26T04:35:09.971-07:00Imperial Lives, Late<p> </p><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I dream of people I don’t
like. Not when</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I
knew them, not now. Unforgiving, like</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">An
emperor, pensioning off delators.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">My
dreams delate. They say, I am the one.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A
pot of lampreys and a plot of ground</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">For
anyone who didn’t see my face</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Remembering.
That girl. That test. That time</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Nothing
went right, and I was told a tale.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A
ribbon and a farmhouse. A fast horse.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A
purple shirt, imperial, for you,</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">If
you don’t know me and you never did.</span></p><br /><p></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-81417462082429174052024-02-20T05:59:00.009-07:002024-02-22T04:54:40.323-07:00GAA<p> </p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">Never since that one night have I attended</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">A party as a mushroom—not that I'm</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">Too proud to be a fungus, though the absence</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">Of chlorophyll and the proud necessity</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">Of feeding on, what shall we say? defunct</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">Organic matters doesn't suggest ballrooms.</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">It's more that we are only flora once,</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">Some roses, spinach some, we soon outgrow</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">Our vegetable natures. Aged between</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">An ugly plant and lesser carnivore,</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">I fared better than most. And when I saw</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #3f3f41; text-indent: 0in;">T</span><span style="color: #3f3f41; text-indent: 0in;">he lamp and found my motor skills, I yet,</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">In the way of a vermiform appendix,</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">Concealed a mushroom nature. Though by night</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">They come and go, by day, if you can pick</span></p><p><span style="color: #3f3f41; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0in;">The right one, they afford a minor garnish.</span></p><p><br /></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-72045538167279685822024-02-16T05:59:00.001-07:002024-02-16T05:59:20.728-07:00Permafrost<p><br /></p><p></p><p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">
A foot of snow descended on the house,</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">All fall at once and
we pretended joy
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">At such a purty
fluffiness, and broke</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Our backs and shovel
blades, and prayed that spring,</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Spring would arrive,
but not because of us,</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The snow grows grass
and lubricates the bulbs</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Stripped from their
husks it promised and delivered.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Summer, which
disbelieves in snow, will swear</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Sweat is the
moisture agriculture named,</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">But summer lies, and
winter lasts: within</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The master bedroom
wall a cache of snow</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Waits and concedes
no melting, never melts.</span></p><br /><p></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-38751705587483417352024-02-11T07:25:00.003-07:002024-02-11T07:25:58.212-07:00Anecdote<p> </p><p></p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
Auden married Erika, der Mann's</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Daughter,
because that's what a bugger does,</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Which
doesn't seem to have disturbed the plans</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Of
anyone, except the beast that was.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Nice
story. Famous names. The gentile touch</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Of
charity, and no Mann shared his beds.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Just
don't believe that we believe too much</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Of
what such great men portage in their heads</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">From
Alpha to Omega. There were those</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Abandoned,
which was not the fault of verse;</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
little more, perhaps, a debt that prose</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Has
not repaid; but when the starving curse,</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">They
do not mention villanelles or myth</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Or
those who aimed intentions, one by one,</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">At
celebrated, artificial kith</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
never felt contrition from a son.</span></span></span></span></span> </span>
</span></p><br /><p></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-70929544150347524292024-02-07T09:55:00.001-07:002024-02-07T09:55:32.569-07:00Happy Trails<p> </p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Edgier, maybe. Nevertheless, I am</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">King of the Cowboys, Lord of the Saving Grace,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The Prince of Pizza, OMG Duke of Earl.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And late to my own funeral, if what</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I see is what there is, reality</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A cognomen for disappointment, cheese</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Spritzed from a spray can, Gandalf with a sawn</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Lady in half, too grey to sing the blues.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><i>Birthdays!</i> I tell me. <i>Birthdays! </i>Let them bring</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Adoration and single malt and straw</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Spun from gold on an old potholder frame.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Maybe I'll let them stay to pay the bills</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">For Gro-Lights that can't remember when to stop.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">King of the Cowboys, closing down the range.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-45705362052529792852024-02-02T08:12:00.004-07:002024-02-02T08:12:34.633-07:00Land Lubbers<p> </p><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
worms are tapping out. The grass</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Has
taken all it can, but rain</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Perseveres.
Down the asphalt main</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
cars sail onwards. No one has</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Observed
the like before, they say.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">They
have. But that was yesterday,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And
rain evaporates. Our dreams</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Will
not hold water. When we dove,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">We
suffocated, and we throve</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Beached.
We are landlocked, and, it seems,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">We
get along quite swimmingly</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Once,
quite deserted, all at sea.</span></p><br /><p></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-58297898944680302932024-01-29T05:28:00.000-07:002024-01-29T05:28:34.072-07:00A Lack of Resolution<p> </p><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">There
enters January from the left,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A
grinning rush of sudden death. <i>I say</i>,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Says
January, <i> You know that’s not true.</i></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><i>I
kill the pine-bore beetles, and I spread</i></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><i>The
grass with green—potentially. </i> I turn</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Away.
I have no time for this. I’ve made</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Friends
with the spring. It promised me a shoot,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A
pistil, and the grounds to make them work.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">January
wears cold around its lungs,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A
heart of hoar, the frost that doesn’t care</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><span>Who
freezes whom. It has its ice on you, </span>
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Its
arabesques of cars out of control,</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><a name="_GoBack"></a><span>Its
night where streetlights groan about the dark.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Somewhere
the exiled cupids fletch their arrows.</span></p><br /><p></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-80561303623052861722024-01-25T05:02:00.004-07:002024-01-25T05:03:23.108-07:00What Was Unmoved<p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"> <span>Winter was all it took</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">To right the summer’s wrong.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">It started with a song.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">It ended in a book.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Neither could ever say</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">All that the snow explained</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Or why the day it rained,</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Geometry washed away.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">What was unmoved was ice.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The song of summer failed.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The song the book retailed</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.14in;"><span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Would never again suffice.</span></span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-10664994436986495572024-01-20T04:40:00.003-07:002024-01-20T04:40:44.097-07:00Tales Out of School<p> </p><p align="left" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"></p><p align="left" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Happily
ever after, says the wolf,</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Picking
his teeth with Granny’s rib; the Prince</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Is
thinking he should let the zygal float</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Against
the oobal, now a muttonchop</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Graces
the front of his pink currency.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">From
hard-boiled eggs and crumbly cheese and pears</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
girl can make a picnic, but a myth</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Requires
meat, not osiers; the bird</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Who
doles elusive clues is never served</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Fajita-style.
Granny works best for that,</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Digesting
in her aged, sinewy way,</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Her
juices turned to lupine sentience</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
thigh muscle and slaver. When we grow</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Old
ourselves and have grandchildren to tell</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
soothing psalms of bedtime, we shall lie</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
say, The woodsman split the wolf in twain,</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
Granny tumbled out and smoothed her dress</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
baked a cake and spread the counterpane.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
child will sleep. We too shall check the yard</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">For
prints. And listen for the wolf. Aha.</span></span></span></span></span></span>
</span>
</p><br /><p></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-15470527604632790732024-01-16T04:30:00.000-07:002024-01-16T04:30:11.268-07:00The Promised Ants<p> </p><p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">In
the Kingdom of the Blind the one-armed man</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Got
strangled by a python. In the dirt</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
ants formed marching bands and bit the dust,</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Then
spat it out. The songs the flicker sang</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Were
all percussion, made my chimney ring,</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And
sounded like a salesman on the phone.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
ghosts don’t bother me. When we play bridge,</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I
am the dummy, and we all fall down,</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Each
time a little slower, till we rise</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Like
half a loaf. And half of me recalls</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><span>That
we were promised ants, and it was kept. </span>
</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
locusts don’t come round much any more;</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">But
one-armed men keep showing up to ask</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">If
I would deign to donate to the blind.</span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-67340221600287038392024-01-11T05:27:00.002-07:002024-01-11T05:27:48.558-07:00Oh, Pancho<p> <span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">—Cisco,
you are loco in the head</span></p><p align="left" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">
<br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><i>Cisco
hath murdered slee</i><i>p</i>, the sheriff said;</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">But
Pancho told him when the deed was done,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><i>They</i>
were eating tortillas somewhere else,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">In
Mesa Verde, which was dun and bare.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><i>Your
hands are scarlet</i>, said the deputy,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><i>Incarnadined
or something.</i> Pancho said,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><i>The
tumbleweeds tell all you need to know</i>.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Cisco
brushed grit off his embroidery,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Adjusted
his somebrero, and pursued</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
banker's daughter, calling to his fate,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><i>It
is the east, and I am someone's son.</i></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
sheriff was not all that mollified.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">As
usual, they had to flee the town,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Eat
tepid victuals in a desert night,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And
top their frijoles with unsummoned stars.</span></span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-42933217976934435562024-01-07T04:31:00.001-07:002024-01-07T04:31:21.630-07:00Lid & Latch<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Inside the damp, torn box a bit of fluff—</span></h3><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8013920568880452959" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 570px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Bright hair by Donne. Might be a web. Or lint.<br />We won't find out today. All lost, grave stuff<br />Waits for last things. This box, though, packs a hint<br />Of all the rest: we lie against the grain.<br />We take up too much time and too much rain<br /><br />For bone to carry breath. His new, clean shape<br />Will grieve the man who lived for gasp and catch,<br />Who free of taint, not bent to bare his nape,<br />Will climb back in, pull down both lid and latch,<br />And while his thoughts last, think of sweat. In pain<br />He saw the light and left it. Bring the rain.</span></div>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-50258345131478547722024-01-03T06:43:00.000-07:002024-01-03T06:43:41.811-07:00True Confession<p> </p><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><i>Entschuuldigung</i>, she said, which was a lie,</span></pre><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Excuses absent, and not wanting one,</span></pre><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Impenetrable of motive and as stumm</span></pre><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">As onyx. Not a tear or comely dab.</span></pre><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Just <i>Tell me what you want, and I'll decline</i>,</span></pre><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A heavenly bosom heaveless. One supposed</span></pre><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">That angels felt this way when sinners pled</span></pre><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Post-mortem for relief, their ichor still</span></pre><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A differentiation from the dead,</span></pre><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Though God had mercy, theoretically.</span></pre><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><i style="font-size: large;">Me a culprit?</i><span style="font-size: large; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"> </span><i style="font-size: large;">Well, I guess I am,</i></span></pre><pre class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span><i>But DNA's a bitch, and time will toll.</i></span></span></span></pre>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-26497730220610230712023-12-29T15:10:00.005-07:002023-12-30T04:21:36.142-07:00The Autumn of Troy<p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Imagine
growing up in Troy,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">N.Y., and Helen is your name.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">You
have no choice, obliged to find</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A
Menelaus right next door,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Or
who'd be spurned? A Joe? A Ted?</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I
don't think so. In Paris, Mo.,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Abscond
with some old mogul's wife,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Hide
her behind your stuccoed walls,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Crouching
for years and years and years,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Until
she has grown hoarse with scorn,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">All
attitude? The men of Troy</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Hector
their bonne wives endlessly,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
voice of Nestor wafting in.</span></span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-24724589679526675632023-12-24T04:50:00.000-07:002023-12-24T04:50:12.909-07:00Native Americans Seize Parkway<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Last
night contemplative smokers and the lean</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Jogger's
rasp; this dawn, woodsmoke and boombox</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Chants.
I'll take Manhattan, the Bronx, Denver,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And
some great plains, they sing. TV trucks. Ralph</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
CU Buffalo has come to cheer.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">We
own these trees, this mani-pedi parkway</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Ours.
From light rain the grass, the grass is coming.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Perhaps
these are the 12 Lost Tribes, their Moses,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A
landbridge-walking chief, whom 40 years</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Hardly
sufficed, whose Canaan=Kansas.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
satellite feed sends this to Inuits</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">And
Iroquois alike. We are inspired,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A
spokes-dude says, by Prague and Zapatista,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">By
black & white together. We shall fight</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">No
more forever, sure, but WrestleMania,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
cage match, the strap match, proscenium-</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Free
drama: they go on today, tomorrow. You</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Pay
per view, you take your choice. Oh, we,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">We
can do drama or we can sit still.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">We
watch at night, and our night watches back.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
neighbors seem confused. They try to do</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The
business of their neighborhood, which local</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">News
zooms in on. These people vote here, pay</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Beads
for their land, send trinkets to their sons.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">We
all are out on porches now. We watch.</span></span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-30296651850405897902023-12-20T04:40:00.004-07:002023-12-20T04:40:36.810-07:00Erosion<p> </p><p><span> </span><span> </span>This, from <i>Epigrams</i>, appeared in <i>Lyric</i>.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Although they only gum the piers,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: large;">when they have gummed sufficient years,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">the waves will melt the wood away.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">The shore was once out in the bay.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Remember when you loved me more</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">than we had time or language for?</span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-40602301604029430542023-12-15T05:14:00.003-07:002023-12-17T08:16:27.304-07:00A Deep Breath<p> </p><p><span> </span><span> This is an old, old poem</span><br /></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Just so you know, the car is
packed.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The
boxes for the poor and sick</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I’ve
set out front. Unbric-a-bracked,</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The
rooms feel foreign. Take your pick</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
Of
where you’d like to squat. We’re left.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">We’ve
saved one leaf from every tree.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">As
we gain years, as they lose heft,</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">They’ll
smell of dry mnemosyne.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">We’ll
hold that breath. The house, the yard,</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Oh,
they were ours, and now they’re not.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">It’s
hard at first, and it stays hard,</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Century Gothic, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Not
to forget those who forgot.</span></p><span></span><p></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-42630580598326970302023-12-10T05:00:00.000-07:002023-12-10T05:00:21.199-07:00A Sentimental Christmas Poem<p><br /></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-1145088821106714173" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 570px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A mystery play is why</span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-1145088821106714173" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 570px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">We say again this year,<br />And me a Jew and dry<br />As ash on toast, Good cheer<br />And peace on earth. And stuff.<br />And, no, it’s not enough.<br /><br />I never met an elf.<br />I fed a reindeer corn—<br />He picked it up himself,<br />In truth. When you were born,<br />Redemption might have been<br />Avowed, pomaceous sin<br /><br />Cancelled. But maybe not.<br />The land of snow and ice,<br />Marprelate and marplot,<br />Is far from paradise.<br />We murder to dissect,<br />Said Wordsworth once. I checked.<br /><br />And nevertheless we are<br />Together on our grounds,<br />Pretending yonder star<br />In ancient flaming Zounds!<br />Promises you to me.<br />And here we are, we three,<br /><br />Wholly a family,<br />An hour now or two.<br />This is the trinity<br />Available to a Jew:<br />For this an angel came<br />And vouched no greater claim.</span></div>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-73574483930355158362023-12-06T05:00:00.001-07:002023-12-06T07:20:46.271-07:00Odysseus Transported<p> </p><p> <span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">for Dr swan</span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I am Ulysses. I reject this form</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">they gave me at Admissions. I have no</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">local address. I do not care to show</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Proof of Insurance. Driven by a storm</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">to castellated strangers is the norm</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">for me, but no immortal set aglow</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">a light like this, half green. Nothing could grow</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">on ground so square, so cold, innkeeper warm.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">A smell of medicine, a sea of white.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I am Ulysses, ill but not deceived.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I am accustomed not to be believed.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I shall recite this on the bloody night</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I send them here, their women sorely grieved</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">to lose their heroes in this sickly light.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672594.post-9449412602649346922023-12-02T04:37:00.001-07:002023-12-02T04:37:33.833-07:00Theory of Summer<p> </p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">Upon
the tip, the cherry; on the branch;</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">the
bird; under the tree, the dog. Still life</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">persists:
the branches of the taller tree</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">wave
in the superheated breeze, a frieze</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">only
so tall, motion above stasis.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">We
notice me, still standing at the window,</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">observer
of the unobserved, observed</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">by
you in your detachment. Words, you say,</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">not
things, as though I could not be a thing</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">because
we know a word for me. The bird,</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">who
is a flicker, as it happens, hops</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">closer,
the cherry dips, the dog explodes—</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I
say she is a shepherd—and the still</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">structure
collapses, except that you are reading</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">words,
not noise. Your head, your head's a noun,</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">and
I have made me up to tell to you,</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">whom
I made up to hear. And the bird, too.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.04in;">
<span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: medium;">I
think the dog is real. I'll look her up.</span></p>Richard Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00318302030070884970noreply@blogger.com1