ad
thick ale and bread to hungry snail
or, better, lips to Romeo's blushing pilgrims.

Then, sudden, I'm old--
on a bench counting stars
where each is a radiant patch of energy
leased to the dark,
an emblem burst mailed from eternity,
spark to cigaret's flame
to burn these little suns
as cupid tails; your "bright eye, scarlet lip,
fine foot, straight leg
and quivering thigh."

CUANDO-CUBANGO

Moths, if they dream dusk,
sport esurient hip-flasks on their wings--
gangster rum-runners better to sully dark,
traverse caravans of colour
amid silk-routes
to dazzle Prester John,
cork unscrew the unicorn horn askew.

2
Compte de la Mothe
escadrilles/flotillas
D'Entrecasteaux
with Bougainville discovering
well, Bougainvillaea and I,
latter day la Perouse,
cunningly amuck on coral
adoration and wine,
(red as scarlet leaves)
chenille, frangipanni and the Marquis house colours
of the flame-bitten tropics.

3
Let me scandalize why.
Watch the sea churn
to white bubbles then coat
your nostril with brine
to run a finger
down brown skin passing
for the Bronze Age.

4
Notice the invention of sun,
a cloak suspended
in a canopy-canoe profusion
(left over from the first dawn,)
oasis of calm,
patter of motes and beams.
Garden of Shalimar.

5
My sentiments exactly.

ONOMATOPOEIA

One thing about this type of education, it certainly taught an
individual to be philosophical about death.

He could ruminate conversably on the ultimate fate of a Greek
shade or the Mesopotamian interpretation of the underworld.
Even contemplate figuratively what Achilles felt was his true
funeral abode.

Shoel. The grave. Romantic poetry might have little practical
application but it was great conversational stuff.

A book or two by obscure authors sure broke the ice at parties,
was unbeatable verbal jousting.

Too bad the joke was on him for majoring in it.

Few people really cared what onomatopoeia was or that
Presquile was in Maine. Worse, they acted like you were nuts
for studying the Aeneid. The Aeneid! It did, too, have
importance. Literature, that is.

Why it gave a man depth, a presence, a gracefulness that
transcended petty, material strivings. Too bad, one couldn't
show the white palms of one's hand for a living or revel in soft
flesh as the natural mark of a born