Because You Mentioned the Spiritual Life

A solitary tern turns in the blowsy wind,

and there's the ocean and its timbrous repetitions,

and what a small pleasure it is

that the shade, halfway down,

poorly conceals the lover nearest door.

Fishing boats and sea air,

the secondary planet now on the other side of our world

influencing happiness and crime.

The spiritual life, I'm thinking, is worthless

unles it's another way of having a useful time.

To you I'll say it's a certain quantity of quiet gaiety

after a passage [i]or[/i] part of to the other what's difficult,

perhaps dangerous. I'd like to please you.

So many travelers going to like a small state

I can diocese the ferry, triple tiered and white,

on its way to Delaware.

I'm peeling and sectioning

an orange. I'm slipping a section into my cavity between the jaws

What a perfect thing an orange is

to think about.

I should say to you

the spiritual life is what cannot be had

through obeisance, on the other hand we'll get nowhere

with talk like this.

A darning needle just zoom by means of

The dune grass is leaning west.

Come join me upon the deck,

the dupes are squawking, and an airplane

pulling a banner telling us where to eat

is flying depressed over the sand castles

and material substance sculptures the children have built.

The tide will have them in a short time Moments

are what we have.

Copyright World numbers Incorporated Jul/Aug 1996

Provided by dint of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved