After Porchia

Chimeras arrive alone,

But have us with them
When they leave.

(from The Intricate Evasions of As)

Close Shave; Mean Tourist; Good Tip

"You think too much--clever people and grocers,
they weigh everything."
--Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

Socrates, my barber, once jumped ship,
Spent an eye-opening week in the States,
Now knows all about the New World
And how things work in it,

Tells me Taxes was great. Taxes? Hell, I all but blurt out
You mean Texas, you dumb Greek, but stop--

The stropping of that blunt,
Anachronous Old World tongue
Raises a new cut to things

As I settle in, he works up
A timely lather,

I sweat out his tip.


(First published in Arabesques Review, v.2, issue 4)

Bookmark, Selected Poems, William Carlos Williams

Out

of these fragile dry
still fragrant yellow-

green stems & leaves
of wild clover pressed

between

the descent
of winter

&

the locust tree
in flower,

the sense of spring.

The Origin of Species

On top of poems are written
Other poems, thus

The destruction of the world's
Perfected.



(from The Intricate Evasions of As)

Logbook Memo

ship

wrecks


memories

harbor



(from The Intricate Evasions of As)