DISCORPORATE

After Cavafy died that part of his soul
Responsible for the rejected poems
Didn't leave with the rest of him.
Some mornings bleak-eyed tourists
See it, dressed in impeccable evening clothes,
Drilling alongside soldiers who fell
During the Siege of Alexandria
Evenings it spends quietly with the ghost
Of Ptolemy Auletes, whose equerry it’s become.
Occasionally it picks up a stick,
Dips it in water and writes a new poem.

RIMBSHOT

When he was 19 Rimbaud
Decided he was done with poems.
To prove he was in earnest
He bought a revolver
Threatening to shoot
Any poem which approached
And asked him to write it.
Having achieved no consummation
His unwritten poetry
Lingers. Tourists report seeing it
On gray-green nights
Throwing rocks into the River Seine.

MORE ON THE SUBJECT OF AACHEN'S DEAD BISHOPS

The dead bishops of Aachen are quiet folk

Emerging from their sepulchers late at night

To clean up the cathedral.  Done,they gather

Outside, smoking the half-used cigarettes

Tourists crushed when they entered,

And watch the stars slowly disappear.

At dawn, the bell named Leopardus

Tolls gently and the bishops fade away.