slab of puddingstone

ALMOND LEAF

My lovely Providence, a microcosm

in the ruins of modernity.

Gray pebble by the sea,

colonial casque.  Slow periplum

around a clamshell iron rim –

like horseshoe crab

with buttresses, or slab

of puddingstone Bermuda-dream.

Today’s your birthday, spiny Jenny.

Evergreen of grief

& joy – almond leaf

of love’s firm spiral (funny

soul’s integrity).  You showed me

Piero della Francesca –

candid paisan Maria

pendulous with incendiary

monochord (trompette marine).

You showed me Providence

over your mother’s dense

grass gravestone (swan depression).

April is your azimuth;

mine too.  The cave

where Earth’s a voided grave,

where Berryman’s a vernal mouth.

Cicadas of Apollinaire

buzz over Île-de-France.

The veil of Adams’ Isis

tears – Columbia croons everywhere.

1.30.17

Newport, RI (near Berkeley's Seat)