850. CHANGE THE CARRIER

CHANGE THE CARRIER
In Hiram's orchard, it would seem, there never
was time for a gleaning. The Magyar King was
freezing me out, and his sister was the girl
from Rheims, I only later found out. The
black car they'd arrived in had plates
from another state, and a sticker on
the rear which read - 'Alternate
Carrier Needed'.
-
When things like this lose their meaning,
the day gets confusing as Hell. Do
you remember Eliot's 'Lady of the Rocks'?
He'd named her Belladonna, 'older than
the rocks among which she sits', as
Walter Pater put it. On her dressing
room walls hung the 'withered stumps
of time', and all her 'strange synthetic
perfumes' are mentioned. That was
but the entry to the era just lived.
And now it is all gone.
-
There was a runaway dog barking hard
on Charlton Street. I saw it moving its
jaw, making such noise as if anguish
was its daily food. The withered
leaves were falling all around it.
It seemed, again, as a
changing of seasons
should seem.