There's a picture of Death
Taken when he was young
And still feeling his way.
He's in a boat, leaning back,
Looking into the sky. A woman
Sits opposite him with the oars
Doing all the work.
A portmanteau
There's a picture of Death
Taken when he was young
And still feeling his way.
He's in a boat, leaning back,
Looking into the sky. A woman
Sits opposite him with the oars
Doing all the work.
At various points in the sky there are
Rabbits posted. Every so often they leave
Their holes (you cannot imagine a hole in
The sky because you are not a
Rabbit) and see the Sun barreling down at
Them. "You again!" they mutter and give it a
Hard kick to speed it on its way.
Every now and then Cotyto,
The Thracian goddess of immorality
Leaves a pamphlet in my mailbox
Or a flyer under my door handle
Advising me she's still doing business
At the old address -- the one
I never could find fifty years ago.
I read that one overmastered by anger
Should pray to St. Jerome. Having no reason
To walk down Seventh Avenue, where he sleeps
Most nights in doorways, I haven't seen Jerome
In years but, being angry, sought him out.
We sat together, not speaking, being angry together.
As if she didn't have enough on her plate
She wakes to find she's become a saint
With unlimited access to the illimitable Grace of God
She slams her coffee mug down, breaking it
Then irritably makes the pieces reassemble.
As everyone knows, Gian Giacomo Trivulzio
Led the French invasion of Milan in 1499
And later commissioned Leonardo da Vinci
To build him a tomb which -- no surprise! --
Was never built. His tombless ghost haunts
Leonardo's designs, frightening no one