4818. SEVEN CHAINS

SEVEN CHAINS

Seven chains across the river : help

me at the Tappan Zee. They fail us anyway,

and the enemy is always coming. Nothing

brings forth agony like defeat, and those

Generals, like Fitzwalder and Faldee, well,

they end up deserving only their names. And

I have humor too, at least some, here. I make

light of these dire circumstances, only to keep

myself going  -  if no one else. There is no landlord

for the leaseholder of irony, or funny lament, or

ribald reminiscence. Eighteenth-century petticoats

are my way of life  -  it seems now they were always

made of long-distance steel, under lock and key,

with no clue for me. Anyway, as it is, these 

men never even see their wives.

-

Seven chains across the Tappan Zee and a group

of Catskill squaws for glee. You think that's just a

name out west? Put really too and golly gee we have

them right here too  -  and not so bad either. Captive

women eat for free. Nothing to get upset about but

those crazy native braves, always yelling about something.

To Hell with them. Distractions all. We've got the other

troops to flee, we've got a bigger river-fish to fry, seven

chains across the Tappan Zee. This revolution better be.

-

Plattsburg was a northern post, near more to where the

sky resided. Any would-be mover-man, right there, would

need to be of very clear proportions. In any of these camps

all that is alike : definitions and outlines, shadows of figures

in the night. None too careful, one can't be.

Seven chains across the Tappan Zee.