HEART THREAD Parts Ninety and Ninety-One

90.

There is a certain subtext to
humanity

they would never occupy this hill

this boulevard to heaven though I
have seen

the shapes of them more luminous than
light

sometimes by the Dogana or any
sea-touched hand

land they walk even when they’re
standing still

the form before form is a gasp in the
mind

to see such absolute a shape
dissolving matter

once you have seen such things you
can’t lose

ghost girls of the Janiculum laugh in
the cypress

a tree is left from their investigations

a doorway full of light that natural
house.

91.

Venus as the bride of Christ he
taught

and every book their wedding gift

forlorn as a block of marble never
carved

insatiable as apple trees he offered
her

all the comparisons a likeness is a
kiss

sudden stranger on a midnight bus

nowhere in Nebraska the one I never

if they don’t live here they don’t
live anywhere

to know truth a little is to know the
heart

who knows the picture that was never on
my wall

I was afraid of images nothing else can
wound.

ROBERT
KELLY