CLAM TIME
One clam emerged & saw the cliff lift-up
its paw to phantom-itch the water. What
occasion! This ‘Being Alright’ inside
Clam-Time still fortified, while guards along
the obelisk clocked-out their shifts with smoke
from knobby lanterns. Our clam sat. Around
him acorns, cedar-root, knobs, dog-ticks, soil…
you know. Hence, clam pearled. He draped some leaves
with fibrous, marbled nacre. He, (clam), shelved
himself by minutes, little oval time-
deposits & checked-out 1:15 A.M. to nest
that minute in the guard-lamp’s optic. Opal!
The night-shore rippled. Ah, that old ruse
again Clam-Time? You tricky chiaroscuro.
GYMNASIUM
The amazing chalice enters, it has
Organ music in its engravings, it has
All of our faces caught in its power,
Silver-Navigator, it leads the path-crew
Into the building, where we find the gymnasium,
A glinting hardwood of pressurized orange!
Where is the mom of this chalice that
Brought us? Is her nightgown full of the bear’s
Exfoliate light, over there where it whimpers ash?
We cheer at her familiarity, bathed in gilded
Oxygen; a pipe-bag turns the lamps into streamers,
The drummer sews wood in our ears.
NOTICE
The vacuum comes to the party with you.
Silent.
It is silent.
Later I find the vacuum outside on the porch –
and the vacuum give me de-ja-vu. Except:
Instead of the vacuum
in the de-ja-vu, in the de-ja-vu, it’s you. And
we are working the air’s machine together,
springs and pulleys, with our noticing.
Noticing how you notice me notice you.
Posting all our moves.
Today, I am hoping to run into you and do –
You are taking a walk with the vacuum.
I want to speak with you alone. But no.
De-ja-vu.
The vacuum.
