Free Verse
Dante’s
View
the century
plant stood
bare to the waist
covered over in the flies
with hummingbirds and bees
like a papal tiara
its lower rungs desiccated and dry
its middle blooming
and its top tier of blossoms still closed
no midgets
here
the tall people
great men and so forth
ask yourself
what can you do now
it is the tall city
of steeples and masts
larger than life
high mount
at the gate of the
day
a man stood
bearing a hand lettered sign
I want a big lounge for my chair and sofa combination
we never knew if it was answered
the day roistered up beyond the gate
with depictions of lines and floating moss of dew
and the ladies of the high new renaissance
gathered at the summit to compare bluestockings
loge
the blackguard’s
a blasphemer
said the traditional voice
I would have preferred
to a speaker in the car window
at the Comédie-Française
I have this note from my critics
who have put it only two ways
objectionable and objected to
turn and turn about
without end again
shank of the
evening
the sun set will
rise
and the pivot of the universe make it fall
spill it over the horizon
and the moon and stars
don’t take it out on credit now
your mass added equivocally to the intervening earth
but reckon it socially
now sociably
with a quiver in your lip
it may be
a risky
business
half the apples
went exploding into cider
down the floodgates
half into the city for pies
we stood below the orchard branches
