RAVENNA PLAYTHING
The last of the autumn thunderstorms
crashes through town,
hail & sleet coming down.
Quick whitecaps fleck the enormous
imperturbable Mississippi flood.
Bridge-work almost done,
the sturdy crane-&-pylon
men climb the sweat-&-blood
iron stairs up to the ridge
just one more time.
Labor is no crime –
titanic force poured to the edge
so that a featherweight robin redbreast
might perch atop a flange
of international orange
and warble good, better, best
into her indigo infinity.
Good will is balance, justice,
equanimity. Who is
the man untouched by vanity,
cupidity? I will hold him close
in my heart’s treasury,
for he alone is free.
Not price nor money could have purchased
Rhode Island; Rhode Island was purchased
by love. Understand, Sophie,
this ocean mystery
of your first scallop-skipping space –
*
the star of Rhodos-Liberty
crowned with a ring of palms
sealed with a steady calm
handshake – confirming equity.
Guide of young Roger, ancient
Canonicus – father
& son : the grace to weather
every gale of greed, any fraudulent
unknotting of their pact of peace.
They step like lambkin twins
from a kayak circumference,
an almond eye, figuring Providence;
the planetary hearth of promise
knife-beaked Raven spied
beneath his southwest glide –
Cautantowwit to cedar wilderness
like monarch checkmating to Mexico.
Primordial Ragnarok
& other nightmares lock
the curse into a seeming cul-de-sac – so
your peace which passeth understanding
like a limping child’s sun-
yellow gyroscope, must turn
upright again – Ravenna plaything,
gather us into the river dance
drowning Man’s arrogance –
evergreen presences
surfing Ocean Stream (taut spring romance).
11.28.16
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