49.
Once it begins it knows how to go on
true translation treats the syllable
as gold intact
as gold intact
apple-mother guide me through your
hedges
hedges
you know where the house is you left
it there for me
it there for me
a spot of rain upon the lettuce leaf
trying to begin again without taking
life
life
take form instead and stand like
Ely’s lantern
Ely’s lantern
eight brave oak trees bear it up
a thousand years the tallest men in
England
England
still stand the mist her little raft
comes through
comes through
carrying her sick friend home from
poetry
poetry
where she will hand-heal every inch
of him.
of him.
50.
My father’s cigars is how it begins
Dutch Masters or White Owl Connecticut
leaf
leaf
no non-tobacco ingredients no paper filler
but I am all paper the flesh become
word
word
no wonder stopped going to church
we never had Sunday school we weren’t
real Americans
real Americans
no town meetings no whitewall tires
Catholics were just Jews with no
money
money
America is still over there across
the bay across the river
the bay across the river
America’s where the sun goes down
makes me sad to see this dying glory
Amenti across the Nile commonwealth
of the dead.
of the dead.
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