A Worldly Country: New Poems

Thrill of a Romance

It's different when you have hiccups.
Everything is--so many glad hands competing
for your attention, a scarf, a puff of soot,
or just a blast of silence from a radio.
What is it? That's for you to learn
to your dismay when, at the end of a long queue
in the cafeteria, tray in hand, they tell you the gate closed down
after the Second World War. Syracuse was declared capital
of a nation in malaise, but the directorate
had other, hidden goals. To proclaim logic
a casualty of truth was one.

Everyone's solitude (and resulting promiscuity)
perfumed the byways of villages we had thought civilized.
I saw you waiting for a streetcar and pressed forward.
Alas, you were only a child in armor. Now when ribald toasts
sail round a table too fair laid out, why the consequences
are only dust, disease and old age. Pleasant memories
are just that. So I channel whatever
into my contingency, a vein of mercury
that keeps breaking out, higher up, more on time
every time. Dirndls spotted with obsolete flowers,
worn in the city again, promote open discussion.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Ecco Press
Published: 02/05/2008
ISBN: 9780061173844
Pages: 96
Weight: 0.30lbs
Size: 8.98h x 6.30w x 0.28d

Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 03/30/2008 pg. 28