Religion has assets, relieves the sweats.
I would never say God willing,
I can pour wine without spilling.
I don’t walk on the ceiling as a fly,
I would like to be "God's spy,"
undress the world, but I just see a little:
the oceans are God's spittle.
Blasphemy directs the mouth a little south.
I don’t keep my word given in a dream,
I often forget my dreams—even what is, often seems.
I turn my ploughshare into a sword.
Blasphemy praises the Lord.
I deny creation at the Jerusalem station.
First cause? No word effective as a pause,
the Sabbath, after the days of creation.
God's not out of style like the franc or sixpence.
Reader, come in, come in, wherever you are.
Dirty words don't satisfy, I disobey the laws.
I know the pleasures of disobedience.
I smear my bread
with Philadelphia cream cheese democracy
and Gorgonzola dead.
Poetry, sacred history is becoming geography.
I say, "Beg pardon" to strangers passing by,
I climb the Rocky Mountains of ignorance,
I read poetry that is and is not my universe.
Blasphemy puts planets in my purse.
An orbit is not a road, haiku is not an ode.
I swallow comets, I belch thunder.
Rhymes make sense: a kind remembrance
of nights that rend yesterday's truth asunder.
I follow Zeus the swan with a flock of words
around Leda's bed. I have been instructed
by Paradise Lost in the ambiguous gift
of freedom achieved through transgression
of God’s law. Then words
are wildflowers, I'm a hummingbird.
The great God Pan is not dead,
he likes ladies who do the can-can.
So do I. I try to do what I cannot, and what I can.
The past is present, goes well with fish,
time is a condiment, not the main dish.
“Life is a dream,” says W. S. Merwin.
I say I'm a polytheist, my rosary is clouds, a sin,
I use them as anything, God's napkin.
Manners, manners.
Using chopsticks William’s manners
are specially beautiful. My forks are flaneurs.
My friend in peace, I’ll never rest in peace.
Life is a daydream I can’t decipher.
I am a guy who does not like to wave goodbye.
* * *
I told William at his 90th Birthday
celebrating in a room away from the noise,
"You are more beautiful than when you were young."
He said, "You tell that to all the boys."
Then they wheeled him away.
My darling dog, I didn't teach you to stay—
stay, stay!