PROPERTIES

 The outfit which provides
Props for my dreams has
Three of the bottles
Where Elisa Verlaine
Kept her unborn sons
(There used to be four
But one bottle broke;
Two of the boys
Room together now.)
The director insists
On renting them often
Even for courtroom scenes
Or those set in the desert.

NEW POLICY

As a courtesy we've begun

Looping our dreams so that 

Characters who appear 

Partway in can sit comfortably 

And watch from the beginning.

There may be a small fee but

We promise to spend it 

On genuine butter

And imaginary popcorn.

 

CATS REVIEWED

 

Lembergoise cats never hurried.
Gossiping idly in the sun
Exchanging barbed stories
About the folk who fed them.
(When I find a cat from Lemberg
He will remember things I forgot
Years before I was born)

Some sleepless Lvov cats always
Padded along the wide streets
While the others slept uneasily
(My father spoke the language of cats
With a heavy Lvov accent.)

In Lwow, the cats learned
To walk upright and to open jars
When war came, they vanished
Through tunnels they'd secretly built
(If I meet one of their descendants
We'll exchange complicated signs.)

A Lviv cat is simply a cat.
These days this is more than enough.

QUESTIONS

 

The bell rung

Long ago -- why 

Listen for it?

The advice of

The painted man -- why

Suddenly heed it?

The hand gone 

To dust --why 

Reach for it now?

The coin spins

In the air; call it!

Harp? Or hen?

STATUE

The label says "A god.

Possibly Zeus or Jesus." 

The Buddhas in Hall VI

("Art of Southeast Asia")

Advise him: "When asked,

Stay silent; learn to smile

Enigmatically." He listens

But occasionally turns water 

Into lightning or warns a guard

To embrace a holy life or

Sacrifice two unblemished goats.

DISTANCE

Before you were born someone

Was searching for you urgently

On dark nights they'd sometimes 

Ring a bell in case you were lost.

There's no moon tonight. Far off 

Carried on the river, can't you hear it?

CONFERENCE

There may be a picture of

Seraphim sitting in the kitchen 

With my father, everyone looks serious.

One, grasping a glass of hot tea 

Leans forward, the fingers

Of his left hand flung wide;

He is explaining they may 

Leave abruptly since they exist 

Provisionally. Or perhaps there's 

A poem or a barely-intelligible tape

Or no record that the meeting

Ever took place.