Fontegaia, still buzzing...

20

 
If there is to be   a Jubilee indeed
it will seep like sap   from the reign of Pax
at ease there   on her footrest (stacks
of worn-out shields)   recumbent on her seedy

 
couch   & it will be deep-lasting, steady-flowing
like an Amazon or Nile   carrying along all sorts
of vessels   large & small   freighted with quaint
& local cargo   with room in the hold   for going

 
far into the interior   of summer   & it will be
something like this   elusiveness   in the backyard
after work   the day's heat lifting   when the shade
of the maples (my vision focusing)   seems (faintly,

 
barely) to open   another eye   behind my eyes
something   dilates (almost)   an eye of memory
& this fragile overlay   of now & then   is sweet
to me   & slightly bitter too   (an almond joy

 
from Mendelssohn)   & Jubilee will not be solely
this or that   but the whole orchestra   in concert
we want no less   than childhood happiness   afloat
in the midst   of a gentle civilization   Heidi &

 
Henry   astride their   duelling pianos   practicing
for each other across   Arthur Street   & the hoopoe
(through a hula-hoop)   shuttling across their   purple
passages   love-sick like   Solomon & Sheba   testing

 
each other   with spelling bees &  hard questions
while the bees build archways   of paired eyebrows
sun & moon   silver & gold   blue & green &
rise overhead   in streams of   free B-flight formations

[note : Mendelssohn is a neighborhood in Hopkins, MN. Pax, here, refers to the figure in the Siena Town Hall fresco.]