passing
a passage from proverbs he chose
marked like a quail's crown
no one exists alone but a
spineless attorney taking advantage of misery
or a steaming bubbling beautiful wife
over trees & plates tonight
& chains of bondsmen dragging on the ground
as the curiously glowing guard dogs bark
as when rolling breakers boom a precipice
& our would-be cities fall & then things bloom
ever more hurt than substance will
accrue to you I say thru locks of curled wire
I’d entrap myself rather than prepare in advance
a music of words caught up in polemical blood
a question does not come before
don’t seek haven in my shadow
for making well crafted objects
I ought not to fail because I am not your lover
I felt the heart within me fall & flutter
the voice an artificial hermetic closet
a resting-place full of summer sounds & scents
that I suspect is virtual discourse
fear sticking up its head
& ticking as if earth were going to be ready
we'd lie under covers gossip & read my poetry
talk approaching ornament & image
this must be a sacred spot close quote
couldn’t speak had nothing to say
(January 19, 2007)
—Bill Lavender