cii

if the sun burns in blooms on the dog-wood
and the lamp hung halfway in the branches
lights them, and glows--then I can say
I'm happy to remember,
fare well where you're going

ci.

worn half-down to the bone, the man
leans against the marble

walls of the elevator, how's it going
down there?, I ask,

it's bizarre, he says, and touches a dry
palm to the gray skin of

his forehead, I've never seen anything like
it, it's just surreal, you know?

I can see how you'd say that, I nod, if you're
right in the thick of it, trying to produce

something out of it, the door opens, and
he trudges out into the flickering

light of the hallway, muttering, slumped
still walking, there's a bravery in that

greater than bold-faced cheers, and
colliding visions, greater than a thousand

hands raised to clutch the sky, to clutch:
the carpet with your feet, and walking,

is braver than a thousand voices raised
to fill the roof and square, than feet

in any street you can think of--the quiet
scuff of tired and still walking, pared

down, still thinking, gray-faced and no
sky, the whispered shush to shatter

the fragile violence of vision, the faltering
roar of unmet desire, if you swing it right

flex your knee, hands in your pockets, wise
or weary, you can grind the world that grinds,
shrieking, to halt

lxxxxix.

the hard buds line the branches,

late--the air melted, 

already, and rushes across

the concrete, through the avenues,

and circles by the steps,

this year, spring clutches close

watches gamely, but

huddles like the snow's still

down, firmly

waiting to release its hold

on itself, some wild logic

driven down from the mountains

to catch the catch, 

and turn it, clasping, flung 

over the basin

lxxxxviii.

when the dawn creeps down across the basin
pale, and the chill air
is still

the light crawls across the asphalt, and promises
warmth, in a little while--
the pale green patches of grass and the frost

glow slightly, and the air is sharp,
with the dark bulk of the mountains grounding
the far side of the valley,

shadowed and tall

lxxxxvii.

break the road across the mountains,
tear it across the washes and the slopes will
fall, always, slowly into gravel, spinning
in the wheels, and clattering to the shoulder,

shadows fall and hold in the crease where
the land rises, and in the dry stream-beds,
flow quiet along the asphalt, the hazy lights

at a cross-walk, by the cluster of houses, in the
chill, fog on the headlights burning
sharp across the divide, blinding the dark
close ahead, sundering the road from
the night--but the black roll rising

ahead of them, the deep blue above them
promises the road continues long past
them, threads dark and unceasing, clear
carries long beyond them

lxxxxvi.

if the world won't wait, for any
intake of breath, passes fast
over each exhalation,

set it aside, remember
it runs fast, but it's
welded to what's been spoken

will wield and will cleave
and twist, on the axis
of the word, inevitably

what's left will become, suddenly
the course of events will always
fall under and reverse it's polarity

people who say the direction
and the motion are environmental
conditions are lying to you

lxxxxiv.

there is no pattern in the stars
hazy over the lights
here, it's necessary
to rely on the human voice, however
muted and only dimly lit