90.
There is a certain subtext to
humanity
they would never occupy this hill
this boulevard to heaven though I
have seen
the shapes of them more luminous than
light
sometimes by the Dogana or any
sea-touched hand
land they walk even when they’re
standing still
the form before form is a gasp in the
mind
to see such absolute a shape
dissolving matter
once you have seen such things you
can’t lose
ghost girls of the Janiculum laugh in
the cypress
a tree is left from their investigations
a doorway full of light that natural
house.
91.
Venus as the bride of Christ he
taught
and every book their wedding gift
forlorn as a block of marble never
carved
insatiable as apple trees he offered
her
all the comparisons a likeness is a
kiss
sudden stranger on a midnight bus
nowhere in Nebraska the one I never
if they don’t live here they don’t
live anywhere
to know truth a little is to know the
heart
who knows the picture that was never on
my wall
I was afraid of images nothing else can
wound.
