3489. HERE WHERE IT IS

HERE WHERE IT IS

Money flies in the wake of action,

like gulls behind a ferryboat's wake :

chasing froth and foam, diving in hope

for fish or food, the warrant for an

errant pretzel scrap unfulfilled.

-

Those who would laugh at this life

are lining the benches, laughing back.

-

I excuse, don't you see, nothing as

I excuse all things : people who are

too nice, the ones who eat too much,

the junk, the crap, the very puke of

excess. Like some men there, I

am too long at the fair.

-

Those who would laugh at this life

are lining the benches, laughing back.

-

In 1948 the cityscapes seemed covered

with smokestacks and all dark things;

an emanation, a charcoal, a black and

white chiascuro of what Man could do,

or would. Even the shapes and forms

were serious and stern.

-

Now, by a contrast of some contrast,

everything has grown pastel  -  light and

hopeful, although somehow false as well.

Spilling over the landscape like a light new

confetti, things just will not stay down or

stay put. (Today, today, where is my

Hart Crane today)?

-

Those who would laugh at this life

are lining the benches, laughing back.