Travelogue (1)

KINGDOM

Flying slowly down to Philadelphia
Human boroughs enlarge after
So much farmland quilting between
Meanders of rivers. We rule this joint

Or what we see of it. An empire
Of light and steel and binary gears
Threshing the earth's surface
Like teeth. I can't help thinking

Of the black cat we feed, half her
Pelt lost to an allergy to fleas,
Her gold eyes wary of me even
Though she closes them with pleasure

As I stroke her neck. The darkness
Of morning luscious as the sound
Of her mouth tearing at wet food.
I miss her here though she's not far:

The human kingdom spread below
Not match for what she purrs so low.


DIFFICULTY

Saratoga Springs, NY

I've fallen back into an earlier
Moment of this year, things so
Brown and cold here,
Bruited yet prescient of

Green fistings in the air,
The eruptive scent of
Blooms. Nothing but difficulty
In this trip to sell my company's

Wares, bad ship happening all
Around, a hundred minor
Problems to wade through too.
Who knows if these publishers

Even give a shit about features
And color and web weather.
Endless work and worry
Are not much for poems.

But even difficulty has its wings,
A throat which oh so coldly sings.



PRAYER fOR GRACE

Lord, I pray for healing and peace
For her, though I do not believe
You grant petitions as such, just
The grace for accepting what comes.

You know the reason, if any could exist,
The wrongs in her life are drowning
What heart she still has. Now
Her father's in the hospital half-

Paralyzed from a stroke that hit
As he was getting heart-stunts,
Half his face sloping down as he
Cried and cried for what he knew

He'd lost, his misery a rain
Which fell hard and cold upon
My wife and her sister and mother
As they watched helplessly nearby.

Who'll stop that rain? I pray
You can where I can't believe.


BLUE ANGEL

Blue lust, soul's woe, leaning
Like a saxophone against
The door to infinite night:
Whatever you see in me

Floods back through your
Parted knees ... It's misery to
Know you're there and
Never more; Or if the height

Of desire abyssed what I
So passionately beveled there
love, salt, booze, Sophia
In her drab grey cloak of fire.

But you're just blue, aren't you,
The sum of every night
A woman cried Not Yet,
Not Here, Not Ever:

A blue note sinking to the rear
Like an angel shot from heaven's sear.