it’s a brisk, bright fall day and
from these two campus chycks passing
by, I hear, “I’m always so uncomfortable
in my winter clothes.” what do you
make of that: I’m always sort of
snuggled up in mine: it’s the winter
outside that feels uncomfortable:
but they’re thinking ahead (they’re
young; looking ahead to discomfort
isn’t as uncomfortable for them as it is for
me, say): but is she more comfortable
in fall clothes: if so, even more so
in summer clothes: how comfortable
would she be in nothing: if there
is nothing in the heights but nothing
I suppose we can dismantle the arcs
and get down: hello, folks, here
we are down here with the pills and
pressures, shoe polishes and handsaws,
leaking faucets, and TV shows: our
longest view is to the next meal,
sex event, pay day, job: what,
what is certain, not to mention
certain to last: what, is there
yesterday’s pie and tomorrow’s pie
but no pie today (the man said,
whoever the man was): curiously,
it’s down here where there are so
many things that there’s so little
to say, whereas the heights, which
hold nothing, conjure inexhaustible
inquiry and dream: plenty to think
about: sidled aside, I shuffled
about for anything that might do:
do you suppose there is Noone in the
sky: has Hubble spotted nothing:
is it really true that a dust cloud
is collapsing somewhere (so slowly)
that will center out a sun, perhaps
with remnant planets, and everything
will start out all over again
somewhere else: and is there nothing
left in the whirling dark star but
whirling, that hard dark body whirling:
my goodness: are we merely here:
are we only a mockery the light will
never miss: I saw dogs catch a
squirrel on campus today: well fed
they just mauled it and didn’t eat
it: later, I passed close to look
upon it and a blowfly, bright metallic,
was pitching about on it: I think
that whatever cares for the squirrel
was in the squirrel and somehow
failed: the fly “cares” but the
dogs are gone, doggone dogs: other
squirrels were not in attendance:
when something dies you might as well
forget about it