17 Years With Science/Violence flashing From the art museum’s roof Generals Lee & Stonewall Jackson, Bronzed & bearded, rode aloof Bird-spattered, peering skyward I was looking up as well At the trembling of the branches Overhead in Wyman Dell (Heard in Wyman Dell) & if 17 years more is not enough To get my act together How long will it take to call my bluff Or let the change in weather Settle underground & summon up the sound No one escapes from if they stay around For 17 years more Having fled from my first marriage & some love affairs gone wrong I was thinking of the Towers & a Robyn Hitchcock song Leaves were sweeping down the sidewalk Was it leaves? I stopped to look Veined & quivering, they rattled Red-eyed, staring back, they shook (& staring up, they shook) & if 17 years more is not enough To let them go on singing Till they drop from trees or scuttle off Another stray cat’s plaything Spinning on the ground Vibrating with the sound We won’t escape from if we stay around For 17 years more & our history keeps passing while they creep Huddled by the roots of trees & burrowed deep Unhurried, safely buried with no promises to keep Now I’m living in a rowhouse With a wife I don’t deserve Waiting for the incarnation Sure to rattle every nerve They won’t need broadband to reach us At the climax of their drone Calling out across the treetops To a world they’ve made their home (A world they’ve made their own) Who knows if there’ll be a next time After 17 more years Will the statues scorned & toppled Stay down, buried with our fears Will our consciousness continue Everlasting in the cloud Even there, we’ll hear that humming High & punishingly loud (Pummelingly loud) Well, it’s 17 years more, I’ve had enough I’m ready for their droning The only thing they’re looking for is love No chance of our postponing When they succeed at last Is it over fast? Leave now & maybe we’ll escape the past For 17 years more & if 17 years more is not enough To get our act together How long will it take to call our bluff Whether, when, whatever Emerging from the ground Converging with a sound That drowns the world out & they’ll stick around For 17 years more & 17 years more... 17 years more is not enough...

Black Reynardine How does it feel Stars out of sight Here, there, or nowhere Closer to night Dusk through the branches Leaving no trace Time’s moving faster Out of this place How do you feel Saved or betrayed Silenced by secrets Let the light fade Rise to the moment Please don’t be seen How does it feel Black Reynardine? Who will you follow Outcast, alone Prayed for or preyed on Bloodline & bone What is your true name? Who will you tell? Fate, burden, or calling Personal hell Break through and shine Stars but no moon Why has the future Ended so soon? Hide for a while You’re in a long line Black Reynardine, You’re no friend of mine

(A Girl Named) Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath Didn’t like math She called me an adding machine She lay on the bed Said, “I wish I were dead” Something she didn’t really mean She liked to have sex It helped her relax But afterward she would daydream Of days at the beach The world out of reach How endless the sand & sea did seem Sylvia Plath… Yeah, she was a beauty She planted a yew tree “One day it will cover up the sky” Her mom was so friendly Her dad left the family I didn’t dare ask when or why She liked tea with honey She sounded so lonely Saying that one day she’d raise bees Though when she was younger One of them stung her “I guess that they do just what they please” Sylvia Plath I think of her always The light in the hallways Catching the highlights in her hair I count all the reasons The days & the seasons That will divide us through the years I remember her laughter We broke up right after She went to college, I left school She wrote me a letter. We e-mailed, I let her Think I was doing something cool She told me a secret. I said that I’d keep it A shock like a mild heart attack On the library shelf She discovered herself A book with her own name staring back… Sylvia Plath Sylvia, do just what you please

Brother (Winter) I look out through the falling snow & see the lamplit windows in the cold The stone façade & mansard roof some architect imagined long ago Twin columns topped with lanterns throwing light upon the gatehouse & the road If anyone is watching as we pass, it isn’t anyone we know It’s strange to think of everyone who drives by every day without a care To know a house holds history, though the lives its history touched are nowhere near Or if they are, they drive right past, a stranger in a stranger’s passing car All sound is disappearing like the last light in the black hole of a star The memory of my brother is collapsing to a single afternoon Blackberries ripe for picking, burrs & briars stuck to our clothing & our shoes Is it a kind of mercy to awake each day, our losses wiped away Or to await the moment when they surface with the things we couldn’t say? The low wall that surrounds the house is one I could step over anytime From under the gazebo I could watch the fountain water turn to ice I won’t look for the lost remains that lie beneath the needles & the pines Or maybe I’ll keep driving while the falling snow fills up an empty sky

Vinegar Vinegar Born of the orchard or the arbor’s vine Vinegar No miracle will turn you back to wine (But, hey, that’s fine) Tell me true Do you feel safe inside your bottle dark Gazing through The glass in search of just the faintest spark Time to hit your mark Vinegar A pleasure & my not-so-secret love Sweet & sour You soak each ragged leaf you rise above (Not high enough) Vinegar When Helen bathed in you, she dazzled Troy Was it for her Those ancient soldiers pillaged & destroyed Or vinegar, more vinegar O Vinegar Some Wiccan spells will fail without your power Can I be sure I’ll taste you once more in my final hour Let it be a shower Of vinegar Balsamic blessing, dressing’s vital zing Near or far Champagne or cider, you’re my everything A flavor lingering That’s why I sing Of vinegar...

Ultraviolet Chimera Amphibious & secretive, you slink away unseen, while men of science seek to solve your mystery Genetics strangely mixed, your body studied like a text, no place for you to hide except in history What will you see When the scientists who probe you find you’ve vanished in thin air Upon webbed feet Will the prints you leave behind reveal the trail they’ll have to follow or the danger that’s right here Fur-covered & deliberative, you spark electric signals in the quiet air that leads you to your prey The scientists experiment with rays of different wavelengths, shining lamps that make you glow or go away Nobody move She’s hiding in the spectrum of a light that can’t exist Are they in love Or is their interest only purely scientific as they spray the lab with multicolored mist Ultraviolet chimera Fluorescing green & blue in the light that follows you Ultraviolet chimera What should you do ? Elusive, shy & serious, you dream again of darkness & await the gentle breaking of each shell You listen for the snap of twigs, the sound of muddy boots, nudging each precious egg to safety with your bill Skeptics converge To doubt the authenticity of films & photographs Call off the search The orders from above originate in higher echelons unmoved by spectrographs Or spiking polygraphs Ultraviolet chimera, Revealed blue & green in the moment that you’re seen Ultraviolet chimera Where have you been? But physicists, biologists Disgraced cryptozoologists Know Roy G Biv is dead & far beyond the infrared Encoded in your DNA a map straight through the Milky Way Points to your origin: you end where you begin From ultraviolet light to ultraviolence, men of science face the sudden flashing of the smoke alarm The lab falls into chaos, hard drives hacked & files deleted, It’s not we who wish to do her any harm The dawn is filled With song you’ve never heard before, perhaps you’ll join in, too The truth withheld While pulsing strangers struggle from their husks to hover high above as if to welcome you It’s time to start anew Ultraviolet chimera, Revealed green & blue when the U.V. lamp’s on you Ultraviolet chimera Can it be true? Ultraviolet chimera, Keep still & listen in, you’re not the only alien Ultraviolet chimera, We’re listening, too Ultraviolet chimera Merging with cicada song, days that last a lifetime long Ultraviolet chimera, We love you