TIME'S WORK

 

The magic weapon which wielded you so long

Is gone at last. In its place you find something

So very ordinary – a bent stick, a newspaper,

A packet of brass-headed pins, a few missing --

That you can only stare at it in wonder.

SECOND-HAND

 

Prince Genji wishes to dream

Of the many women he's loved

But can only manage to dream

Of Prince Genji. Dream Genji

Says "Don't wake up! I'm dreaming

Of the many women you've loved."

WHAT WILL BE REQUIRED OF YOU

 

The odds are good that God today isn't seeking

Your death at the hands of an angry mob

But something simpler -- a hex-nut wrench perhaps,

Or a bowl of soup or just two fives for a ten.

HER AGAIN

 

There is a painting of Salome with the head

Of Saint John on a golden dish. Her look

Is unmistakable: love  -- deep and tender love;

Her eyes are soft beneath her broad-brimmed hat

(There is apparently a convention

That Salomes wear wonderful big hats

While examining severed heads. So do Judiths).

"Oh John, John, my foolish, lovely John!

Look what you've made me do to you!"

Today's essay assignment: remembering, 

That the ways of God are past understanding,

Assume Salome is invited to be a saint.

Of what, of whom, is she to be patron?

VISIT

 

So I am minding my own business when

Sadness -- the genuine thing, aching and alive --

Comes into my office, sits down (who invited her to?

But sadness is her own master and does as she pleases)

Crosses her legs and lights a cigarette as if

This is 1952 and lighting cigarettes was a thing

Almost everyone did because why not? She carefully

Flicks the ash into a melamine ashtray from Woolworth's;

30 cents or four for a dollar. It's mottled green

And I know its sisters were red, black and orange.

So you're a detective, she says and I think no

I am nothing like that but I'll play along

Until the story's over.  Twenty five dollars a day

And expenses, I say. If I take your case.

Now spill; what brings an abstract entity like you

Out on a night like this?

LOCAL

 

From courtesy we call him the god of the road

But his remit only runs for two blocks plus

Six houses and a tree or two on the next.

It pleases us to see him making his rounds

Picking up trash and delivering answers

To last week's prayers. Often enough

He leaves them with the wrong people.

INITIATIVE

 

In an experimental program Zetacorp (tm) 

Will be answering prayers in selected parts

Of the tri-state area. If your answer arrives

Damaged or mis-sized or you're the sort

Who prays for things you don't really want

There will be a two week return period.

Zetacorp (tm) takes no responsibility

For the condition or mood of returned prayers

So if they snarl, bite or creep you out

With their sad little faces it's not on us.

ANOTHER

 

There is another Salome, said

To be Mary's sister or cousin or aunt.

She turns up to help mourn for Jesus. Not,

It's insisted, the same as the Salome

Often pictured either dancing or

Looking --quite tenderly at times --

At St. John's head on a platter;

Still, of course, she was. It happens

Frequently. Young, you dance naked

And demand the heads of those

Who don't love you. Older, you become

A useful person to have around 

At childbirths and sickbeds; the sort

Who remembers to bring a bit of myrrh --

So comforting! -- to a crucifixion.

MANY OF THEM GRACKLES

Barry Gifford said there are
No birds in Hell. Plainly
He’s never been there
Around 3 o’clock
On a Friday afternoon.

SHADOW

 

When my Aunt Edith, still a baby, suddenly died 

Her shadow remained behind. Her family, never ones

To make a fuss of things even when they probably should have,

Went on as if there was nothing strange about a shadow

With no person attached.

CRAFTMANSHIP

 

The problem with sitting for a portrait by Rembrandt

Was that if you didn't have a soul he'd make you one

From whatever was at hand -- a half-dead flower, say

Or a kitten's shadow and a handful of spoons.

They were wonderful souls but inconvenient

And hard to grow used to. They never wore out;

Turning up even now, looking across a canal

Or examining light falling on a piece of brocade

FORMALITIES

 

I'm no Christian but I've seen

Many Annunciations -- hundreds of them;

Maybe thousands. Mary is rarely the same

Her hair is red or yellow or brown or black;

Curly, straight, braided, pinned,

Covered by a plain cloth, elaborately turbaned

She is surprised, frightened, bored, submissive,

Patient, impatient, worried, serene;

Keeps on reading or puts her book aside 

(Marking her place with a flower,

A leaf, a finger or -- at least once --

A pair of shears.) Sometimes she's gardening

Or cleaning or daydreaming. She sits, she stands,

She kneels to the angel who kneels also

Or doesn't.  The angel is alone or has brought

A companion or two or entire hosts of angels

With discrete wings or huge ones, white

Or falcon-striped or bright enough

To embarrass a peacock. They stand

Wrapped in silence or play instruments

And dance in the sky. The announcing angel

Approaches humbly, arrogantly, gravely, 

Or with the jaunty air of a favored suitor.

Now, though, comes something different --

A silent angel, poking before him a document

Triple-signed and notarized -- some sort of contract

Or decree. I was a lawyer so I know something

About notaries -- a precise and prickly lot

Who delight in procedural niceties. Where, then

Did the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost

Find IDs to show the notary? Were difficulties made

About Christ's age? ("Yes, I understand-- 

Co-extensive with the universe -- but when,

Exactly, were You born? Some time next winter? 

.... So. So. So. Ah! Can I speak for a moment

With Your Father?")

MUSEUM VISIT

 

All I need do is to cook eggs in a pan

Whose handle sticks out from the stove

Instantly, my mother's ghost is there, telling me

Not to be so careless. On Thursdays

Admission to the Cleveland Museum is free; 

Ghosts pay half-price so I invite her

To visit her friend Girl Who Has Been Angry

For Three Thousand Years. The Museum

Calls her "Ancient Figurine of a Woman

Or Goddess, possibly of Vinca origin"

But that's not her name.  They're wary of her;

She once bit some docents trying to stop her

From distributing union literature to other statues.