FLUTE

 

Silence is, of course,

Silence so when I ask

What's with the flute

You're carrying

She says 

Nothing but points

To the small drum

She has strapped to her hip 

Which I suppose

Wanted company.

ACCESSORIZING

 

1918; Max reads Charles Reznikoff's poem

About the shopgirls leaving work

So the rats and roaches can begin their shifts

Reznikoff's family makes hats. Sometimes

Reznikoff sells them. Max makes coats.

On her day off, a shopgirl -- I see her

As tall and thin and talkative, moving

Rapidly or not at all -- could wear

A Reznikoff hat and a Max-made coat;

My other grandfather, Joe 

Could make a watch for her. No;

It's 1918 and Joe is in the army. His father

Juda will have to make it and sell it

From his shop on a street that will disappear

Thirty years later to make an approach

To the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. Still

We in 1918 could care less; we're thinking

Of that tall shopgirl and wondering

What, if anything, she's wearing

Besides a coat and a hat and a watch.

PRAYER

 

I have sinned, Saint 467 --

Intercede for me and I

Will build for you an altar

Between those of Saint 394

Who once lent me ten dollars

And Saints 606 and 909

One of whom gave me a cat.

PLAINSPEAKING

 

If it thought you'd understand, your shadow

Would say "Those birds in that tree over there

Are planning something -- it is urgent

That you stop and listen to them!"

Later, it might wake you at midnight

Saying, "The ghost who owes you a favor

Is at your door -- she cannot stay long --

Go let her in!"

MAKER

 

When there is one God, says Sobek, 

Holding a beer in his thick-clawed hand,

It is His nature to fill everywhere,

To be everything. This leaves no room 

For anyone else. Think how lonely that is!

You try to amuse Yourself; You invent Time

Hoping something will happen; nothing does 

Until there is something else. Usually a dog. 

Someday, though, a crocodile. Just wait

And see what sort of universe God will make

When He has a crocodile!

ROUTINE

 

If/When you find yourself

In Schrodinger's Box remember

To feed and not feed 

The cat before changing 

And not changing her litter.

Then, let her sit

On your lap, purring

And not purring until 

She falls asleep with 

Her green eyes wide open.

COMMUNAL PRAYER

Perhaps God is a bit deaf so that
Ten men must talk together
To make Him hear and, even so,
He often misses some fine nuance
Or misunderstands us entirely.