HEART THREAD Parts Fifty-Five and Fifty-Six

55.

Falstaff rises from the water subtly
changed

his laundry basket floats away
downstream

here he’s as wet brand-new as Moses

it takes more than shame to wash old
lusts away

rush of the wild ox through fields of
barley

the maiden thrilled at last consents

to be cast into the contingency of
another’s desire

these are what we forget as we walk mild
in the street

caught in the meshes of other
people’s fantasies

read Coleridge chapter XIII how
little we dare to create

how much we brilliantly remember

use the typewriter at the bottom of
the well.

56.

There is no mainland it’s all Ocean
River

coarse voices of drowned fishermen

finally learn to whisper as the waves
kiss shore

hush and hiss and come between our
skin

in a child’s voice we hear last
echoes of someone else

lost echo Hart Crane to be a poet in
America how strange

take the rhymes away and then you’ll
see

language is continuous I’m giving you

soft white as new parchment and a
bird at my foot

it’s starting again a raft of meaning

floats up and down your spine this
trembling reed

as if you were married to a baker and
slept in his bread.

ROBERT
KELLY