PERFORMANCE

The music strikes up; dancers,

Already on stage are in motion.

They’re just a few at first but,

From the wings come more

And more again until the stage

Cannot hold another. No matter;

A scrim lifts, and there is space

For those coming from everywhere

Rappelling from the rafters, streaming

Down the aisles. The musicians

Put down their instruments to dance;

The music now plays itself. Last of all,

You rise, arms links with yours

And you’re dancing.

                         If this isn't Death

What can it be?

THE RETURN

Grown old, Mr. Hyde finds he misses

Dr. Jekyll. He is not a chemist –

That was Jekyll – but he has the notes

From the original experiments

And signs up for some courses. His wife

(Hyde gave up murdering women years ago

On the advice of his cardiologist) thinks

Jekyll is unlikely to return from wherever

In Hyde he’s been larricking about. Still …

She prepares the guest bedroom

And buys porridge; Hyde hates porridge

But says Jekyll will want it at breakfast.

INCIDENT

Almost featureless, the ghost
Stands by a wall. The rain

Makes people hurry by.
I furtively put in his hand
The memory of a dime
One of the old ones, silver,
With Mercury's head on it
He curls his fingers around it,
Nods and is gone.

CHEAP AT THE PRICE

If this was 1940
I might take a subway --
One of the new IND lines --
And walk a block south
To 24 West 40th Street.
There, I'd ask "Do you have
The Goddess of Time?"
"Certainly," the jeweler would say
"That"ll be one dollar down
And $2.87 a month
For the next ten months."
My grandfather, a watchmaker,
Might have cautioned me
That any watch called

The Goddess of Time
Was no better than it should be
And was not to be trusted.

CALL NOW

Chief Mullica, licensed detective,
Can be found, when he chooses,
At 577-S, The Orpheum Building,
Jersey City, where it is always
October 1940. He is willing to train,
To investigate, to fingerprint,
To shadow and to solve
Cases which have baffled
More ordinary detectives.
That he works out of a building
Torn down 60 years ago
Is not a problem. 

For $15 a day and expenses,
He’ll  travel almost anywhere.
Particulars, say his ad, are free.

DANCERS IN A SKETCH OF DAUMIER'S

So tightly they grip hands!
How fast they circle round!
The goose, in vain, honks
Alarmed that their feet
Have left the ground.

AYIN

Alif, who can't be seen,
Has an apprentice --
The angel Ayin --
Who doesn't exist
But hopes to.
Homeless, she sleeps
In alleys, wrapped
In a torn shadow.