5.30.2017

sunset orange



LAST STAND

The grey pebble, the unknown soldier
flung like a meteor
or Pippin to the ocean floor
blazes with spiritual authority (chaired

in the adamant of Time).  Quick
fiery arc of Jeanne,
dove-mild, Columbian –
from sweet Itascan spring to thick

Louisiana live-oak grove (along
a serpent’s labyrinthine
swerve).  Dream-scene.
Microcosm in a hobo’s glass, song-

songe awakened on Rose Island.
In your eye, Henry –
in our eye (INRI).
Crossroad of a king’s last stand.

Royal beyond kings, in their halls
of mirrors (drawing near
like Minotaur, a minor
character in Humpty-Dumpty Falls).

Lightning of intellectual fire
with rattling Thunderbird
enclosing Red Wing – Word
for equal brother, sister – Sire

& Siren in candescent colloquy.
Sheba & Solomon
enfolded in one zone
Galla (octagon vault-canopy)

                *

Placidia (ample, enduring crown)
might set like Orpheus
to shepherd sheepish US
to her clay plateau (emerald, ultramarine)

within Ravenna’s salty limestone
tombs (carted away
to Rimini, Ezra)
Franciscans monitor (Dante’s is one).

Henry-Hobo, ascending from the grave
of buried Berryman
under a Minnesota sun
shrives everything (old beggar-knave)

to thread the needle, so narrow
from Providence hillside
through Julian suicide
& Gateway Arch, to San Francisco

Porta Povertà – the Golden Gate
rimmed sunset orange
to rhyme with that strange
Libertà, shining in every heart...

the Jonah-Dove, or Jeanne d’Arc,
or Jenny Littletree
Corn Maiden, in D.C. –
my Pocahontas statue in the park

veiled by the evening radiance
of West Branch, Iowa.
I am the Mystery-Yahweh
of Life, she say – the dew’s sundance.

 5.30.17

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