... & one more bit for today...

 7

  
 The moon was like a shield of milk   serene
 over the long   lazy-Lazarus   river of mud
 and   a mild music   in 4/4 time   dum-
 dee-dum-dum   a faux tod   blessed   sans

  
 raison   filtered the willow-limbs
 like a breeze   from the delta
 and forth   came the deadly   belated
 jewel-brow   of an eddying copperhead   W

  
 like a wily whale   from an upland cave
 speaking in bellicose pitch-tongs
 of sullen fury   green-gutted
 with spite   beneath the vacant lamp

  
 of a one-eyed Sears   Green Constellation
 the whorl of his   disaster-tail   tipped
 through a pinball furnace   petals
 of velveteen galaxies   the venomous patter

  
 of his speech-machine   Independence Day
 while the clock with four hands   (not red,
 not black)   in the tiny room   (engaged,
 not vacant)   where he waits (intrepid, with cigar)

  
 for the helping hand   of an hesitant cripple
 aligns at last   Greenwich and Washington
 Florence   Petersburg  &  Lima   Jerusalem
 and together cry   fly, dove   escape from me

  
 through the light breeze   in the empty garden
 rustling the vines   beyond the porch
 in the uplands   where the serpents play
 and lying still beneath your palm   the dragon

  
 at the summit wheels (tame now) for you
 (fireworks rounding out your forthcoming)
 who fused the four hands of the seraphim
 inverting dragonship into green infant nef

      
                               1.28.2000