Garden Pipes

Kansas or Nebraska

they’re all trying to

               dance or paint

               professional

               locusts

devouring

the North Shore

               and

faded brittle flowers

               dark

to admit

this calm

never held out

               but I think

what I mean

a man

his architecture

would show

(1-inch window, left-hand margin, p. 240-243.)

Portrait in Oil

the world

just this side of

blackness

a blaze

               of splendor

tenderness

(1-inch window, left-center margin, p. 236-37)

Blue Difference

come out

               lyric

               gamin

the

hired girl

and her

pointed breasts

the answer to this

a

back door

a

patch of

                              floor space

women                 brushes

the dais toward

 

(1-inch window, left-center margin, p. 230-235.)

Earnestly On

push back

forehead

                              her unaware

you work

               in that

between

board

every hour

forgotten

step into her car

(1-inch window, left-center margin, p. 228)