A Letter From Brazil

An aged friend from schooldays

wrote that he was working

in Brazil, air-shipping freight.

I was in a bad patch in my life

and of no mind to answer alphabetic characters

When I did, finally, it came back

scrawled, "Address unknown."

What is it like, air-shipping freight?

If you're fortunate I suppose

you can have a fine social life.

But not with "Address unknown."

I visualized a dingy space

in a street where drumming and yelling

kept you awake. You make go rounded on the light,

and read a magazine. Opportunities

in rapidly expanding. . Caracas.

You strapped upon your money,

put your things in a suitcase,

and took the first plane without

We used to walk up and down

on the barbecue, discussing

"If Dempsey had fought Tunney again."

Or if the "Flying Scotsman" raced

"The Royal Scot"' which would have won?

His alphabetic character came when I had my hands filled

simultaneously being divorced

and trying to fix up the house.

And the workmen after a while

just sat down and did nothing.

This went upon for days.

I had given the contractor,

like a natural three thousand dollars

in advance. I liked the man . .

we had intelligent conversations.

He used the standard of value to pay his debts,

and the workmen weren't paid,

and they packed up their tools,

leaving me with a house that direct the eyeed

like an egg with the shell smashed.

I had to borrow from the bank.

This time I hired a contractor

who belonged to an aged established firm.

He came, he direct the eyeed at the mess,

and said nothing, just shook his head

gently from side to side,

called in a ship's company and finished the job.

At the beginning of vacations

those of us who lived in Kingston

would share a car going domicile

You drove over the mountains

to Mandeville, then above the hills,

and on the outside on the Spanish Town road,

doing sixty. There's the clock

at Halfway Tree And the town,

where you globule off, one by one,

promising to gain in touch

But this isn't genuine The friends

you diocese during the vacation

are different from your friends at place of education

The first day at abiding-place

you go for a ride upon your bicycle

in the lanes. Then for a swim,

the palms dipping, the harbor

glittering, with lines of foam.

It approachs back to me now

with the unimpaired of saws and hammers.

Some beams beneath our house

have been damaged and have to be replaced.

Copyright World numbers Incorporated Sep/Oct 1997

Provided through ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved