MISSION

 

To weave through alleys the moonbeam

Must act as light was never meant to

Moving in slow spirals, cultivating a taste

For music played subtly out of tune.

It must ignore silver and pretend

Its pulse quickens at the sight of gold

(Where did it acquire a pulse let alone

One that could plausibly quicken?

Must it have blood too then, and veins

And arteries to hold its blood and then

A body to hide veins and arteries and all?

It must.) Learn to swagger and sway, walking

With exaggerated care after long nights spent

Drinking down by the docks until two dim moons

Shake their heads and ask why you've not found

A certain scatter of unblessed bones.

EVERYWHERE

 

Used to ubiquity, God

Going up a hill

Nods to Himself 

Coming down 

But tells St. Lucina,

Who's walking with Him,

"Don't stop to talk;

We'll be here forever."

JUST AS WELL YOU DIDN'T WANT TO BE KING

 

Since you're not Banquo or Macbeth

We're not witches right now; we have

No prophesies for you. Our cauldron

Is filled with soap and boiling water;

Return to us when you have laundry.

AFTER THE DEATH OF SMALL ENEMIES

 

In synagogue, will everyone rise

For the mourners' kaddish?

Will you light yartzeit candles

Every day just when twilight

Forbids your eye from telling

A blue thread from a green one?

Will you wonder: all those destroyed worlds --

What would they have been like?

PRAYER

 

The oni's god is powerful

But dangerous. He is also 

Deaf. Before praying 

Try banging on a pot for

Fifteen minutes or so

To get his attention.

CHANGE

 

After years of threats and promises my better self

Has found at last someone else to be better than. 

This has, of course, required considerable paperwork

And an administrative restructuring. For now,

I am myself only on nights and weekends

While working -- provisionally -- from my better self's office

(He left his file cabinets locked but my worse self

Opened them with a paper clip.)

GENERAL FITZWILLIAMS' WILL

 

To the maid Mary Rocke he left 

Stocks, some cash, an annuity

All his shirts, two nightgowns,

His lace ruffs, a snuffbox

With his dear wife's picture on it 

And his gold dumb repeater watch.

(A dumb repeater keeps time 

Just as well as those that speak; 

It simply doesn't brag about it.)