73.
Stay out of sunshine walk in the
shade
I suppose this place an ancient apple
tree
older than Eden and ferns grow round
it
it leaves me with no answers
I feel glum and businesslike today
accountant of a bankrupt hardware
store
with nothing left but the names of
instruments
columns of numbers those birds of the
heavens
endlessly fluttering past and
vanishing
and O the hawk of zero knows my name
inscribable outstretched beneath him
divide by zero and smile for the
police.
74.
Some day I'll get this someday wrong
and it will be today, the actual
two schoolchildren performing for
assembly
tell of seaweed stars in our flag
what about the starship from the
alien planet
why would they bother to come here
why do women wear flowers in their
hair
I never wanted to alter your routine
snow or swelter you know better
there are whole cities where the men
know less
spell your name the Irish way
then no one can whisper it in local
dark.
