second poem! half an hour before the deadline.

I am taking a two day hiatus 'cause I'm going home for Rosh Hashanah and want to respect my parents' observance. I may or may not do three poems the day I return to this blog (probably not).



"Biological patchiness is a given..."

It's important to remember the logic of things.
The structure of leaves
piping the sun in dark veins,
twinned at the feet
diving perpetually away into the air --

This in the constant usuries of daily life,
the dereliction of the grand idea,
The sour progress of light into dimness
gouging the features of passing faces.

Strangers with hair like Spanish moss studded with flowers
look at me once and retreat from the light.
It dies on their backs like a pale child
forgetting itself in a crowd of shadows.
But the leaves recall themselves in ascending spirals
that sigh and tremble like moths in the empty street.