GETTING METAL

Knowing no one else in New York in 1882

I have requested my Great-grandfather Juda

To get from 98 Seneca Street in Buffalo 

The celebrated steel products of Fowler & Sons

Whose catalogue providence has put in my hands.

Soon, I'll be able to make barrels whose hoops

Will last forever. My horses will wear shoes

Of Hobson's Celebrated English Choice cast steel and,

Though I'm not sure what use it will be to me

I'll have any amount of Black Diamond

Tool steel shaped into octagonals, rounds and squares

As well as some ribbon flats. If the mood is on him,

I think Juda will well deserve his own cache

Of Tire, Toe Calk and Sleigh Shoes

Made of special, patented self-hardening steel

At three quarter cents extra a pound. Hang the expense!

SCENE

Death has unexpectedly

Brought a lute with him

He's played a few notes 

And sung the opening lines

Of a long-unheard ballad

In a sweet tenor voice

(The bearded priest glares;

Death should be more grim)

Following the best protocols

The dying man's good angel

Stands to his right while

A demon is at his left.

Things are running long;

The demon's eyes are closed

And she may be asleep.

To keep himself awake

The angel has quietly made

The ragged clothes and curtains

Start sewing themselves whole.

STREET

Because St. Brigid won't stop pestering him

Jerome sometimes cleans himself up

Trims his beard, cuts his hair, puts on

A three-piece suit and the red hat

That marks him as a cardinal

His long, clever fingers fly

Doing street magic

But never

Miracles.

Finally

Brigid relents

He folds up his table

And, though he knows

It'll return to him, throws his hat

Through the window of a passing car

(In the old days having become a cardinal

Was not a thing you could leave behind you).

AGAINST NIGHT

 

Fireflies coming on duty

Find the widow standing

In her garden at sunset

Knees slightly bent

Holding a long sword

Once the general's

She can -- she will --

Stand like this for hours.

Fading away, her shadow

Makes one more attempt

To reason with her.

PASSING THROUGH

A crowd of two-dimensional gods

Blows through November's sky;

They've been punched full of holes

So the wind whistles through them.

(Some wish you ill but others

Would gladly grant your most urgent wish

If your words only made sense to them.)

SUGGESTIONS

In the museum exhibit

A statue of an unknown saint

Shares a room with armor

Made for Henry VIII. The saint

Is austere but looks troubled

Perhaps because doesn't know

Why he is a saint or of what

He is the patron. The armor,

Swag-bellied and elaborately chased

With gold figures twisting about

Against a black background,

Murmurs suggestions: "Patron

Of alewives and wharfingers?

Of confused children? Of letters

Never delivered or delivered

But never opened? Utility saint

Put on when other saints need a day off?"

FOUNDLINGS

Dynasty after dynasty Pharaoh’s oldest daughters

Walk along the riverbank, looking for baskets

Sometimes they find small animals or figurines

Made of plastic or resin with strange letters

Stamped on their bottoms. They’ve found Osiris

Many times but he growls at them and they

Put him down again. Moses hasn’t reappeared

But Death sometimes turns up, wrapped in a blanket

Blinking sleepily in the bright sun.

VARIATIONS

 

I

A basket is emptiness

With a shape and a handle

So it can be carried about.

II

Though the sturdy basket

I remember has surely 

Turned to dust

I would recognize

The emptiness it defined.

III

Beware, emptiness!

A basketmaker

Plots to trap you.

IV

This basket is full

Of the wrong kind

Of emptiness.

V

I meant to bring you

An empty basket

But the emptiness

Leaked out.

PRINT, CAT, OCTOPUS

While I was out, the very old muse

Let herself in and fell asleep

Over a print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Called Cat Dressed As A Woman

Tapping An Octopus On The Head.

The cat looks pleased with himself;

The octopus is annoyed. This game

Has been going on for some time

With the cat entering the room

Where the octopus is trying to sleep

In increasingly elaborate costumes:

A porter; a fisherwoman;

The ghost of a wandering priest

With a basket-hat hiding his face;

Oda Nobanaga, holding a fan,

Preparing to inspire his troops

By dancing for them, Now,

He imfelinates a very great lady

Who expects to be obeyed.

TO BE KEPT IN MIND

 

In need, the multiplication table

Will serve as prayer. Also,

Preliminary studies indicate

Heaven sometimes listens

To the alphabet recited slowly 

Without running lmnop together.

(Elemenopè is a minor Hurrian god

Of reflective surfaces and crop damage

His miracles generally involve bugs.)

FIELD OF STUDY

 

The next world, of course,

Finds you terrifically interesting

It endows university chairs,

Sets up journals (quarterly and bi-yearly),

And has several learned societies

Devoted just to considering you.

There are, though, difficulties;

Internet service is spotty; books

Constantly rewrite themselves;

Figures in photos feel free to migrate

To ones they like better. Still,

Progress is still being made.

A few tickets are left for a free lecture

On a day you didn't visit Paradise Pond.

There is also a promising new book

On what you might have seen

From a ride in your cochecito nina

On 1 October 1951 if you'd been awake

(Close readers of your life may spot me

Waving from the middle of a footnote.)

SCALES

The delicate chains are brass but

The rest of it is bronze except

The weighing pans which

Are made from amber-colored shells.

My grandfather and his father

Were watchmakers and, at times,

Jewelers but what use do I have

For their scale accurate to some

Preposterous fraction of a gram?

It hangs on my wall. Occasionally

The pans tremble, seeking balance.