Three Poems

Train Ride to Springfield

Leave things behind.
Watch the 現在の slide by into somebody's past.
見解（をとる） carcasses of cars and retired tires, graffiti-scarred 塀で囲むs,
quickly gone. The ailanthus tree arrives with splashes of green
seen faster and faster along the 辛勝する／優位 of a silver river.
Soon you will see scaup skim whitecaps 長，率いるing to the sea,
and 観察する exemplars of goosey-loosey housekeeping on the bays:
Canadian geese, a mated pair swim with six goslings
in their family flotilla are part of a 簡潔な／要約する glimpse of dancing waters
lapping at the trackside marina where clean white bellies of boats
を待つ tender kisses in drydock. Take 公式文書，認めるs.
令状 a poem.
Wow, there goes Stamford
perched on the slope of Western Civilization, a quick familiar ちらりと見ること
含むs duly 公式文書，認めるd cormorants
sunning on dead 四肢s protruding from a slough not far from a parking lot
where 列／漕ぐ／騒動s of oil stained cars remind me of the duckweed decorated tide
hurrying out to touch our cindered shores.
Beyond each cove new 遭遇（する）s を待つ.
A pristine 帆船 長，率いるs 負かす／撃墜する river away from my life
tiptoes past a scow 耐えるing dredged dread or redemption for riverine mud
or sludge hereafter,
depending on a flyfisher's dreams
or the shad 反乱. The water gleams.
I have a waterside seat:
it's neat, I always make sure to sit on the 権利 味方する
so I can watch Westport perched on the 辛勝する／優位 of the estuary
not far from where bird 選挙立会人s crane their necks
to 見解（をとる） laughing gulls, rose-breasted grosbeaks,
the aforementioned geese or lucky ducks
having sex. Across
from a 大統領の mansion on a hill,
郊外s creep 負かす／撃墜する to the water's 辛勝する／優位
lawns freshly mown 下落する 負かす／撃墜する to the freshet streams.
Grass, 式のs, too 甘い for these 旅行者s, this train,
my train with 力／強力にする people 船内に,
talk into 独房 phones, always 安心させるing voicemail wherever
that rewrites will 速く arrive 経由で email from 刑務所，拘置所
(we passed it), and my disk will talk with your disk.
Of course she's blonde in the seat ahead, with phone and water-
blue blazer, she's ready for fun,
while the guy behind me 漏れるs news about health 計画（する）s
gleaned from a セミナー in Baltimore
he recently …に出席するd by train,
one hopes on 予算 and 解放する／自由な of 苦痛. Then,
as 約束d, Hartford ぼんやり現れるs
to 追加する 演劇 to our moving room.
Can you imagine some mysterious music 追加するd now to
our 旅行, echoing from these worn Connecticut towns sun-dappled
and shadowy from Jonathan Edwards's
troubled dreams 宙返り／暴落するing across the Connecticut River toward us,
耐えるing news of yesterday's riparian
嵐／襲撃するs, alarums from men on horseback
wearing 勝利，勝つd-blown capes, 脅しs from Boston.
Yesterday a train 難破させる in Germany killed maybe 100 happy souls,
the worst 鉄道／強行採決する 事故 since 1945 when a 戦車／タンク train
(勝利者s) 衝突する／食い違うd with one 負担d with German P.O.W.s (losers),
no more goose-steps for those guys.
Train 難破させるs are not たびたび（訪れる）. What gets you
is your own imagination as this train carefully skirts a pond
where I 位置／汚点／見つけ出す yet another husband and wife team of Canadian geese
直面するing into the 勝利，勝つd,
this time with three teen-agers to 保護する, gawky in their fuzz
and feathers. The hills of Massachusetts creep closer and closer,
and the train waddles slowly past workmen 修理ing 跡をつけるs,
doing mysterious 仕事s to make our world better,
as we chug closer to the hills, hoping to hear the sounds of thrushes singing,
pulling さらに先に and さらに先に away
from train 難破させるs, war, dead 四肢s, and anything else that might
脅す a neatly 圧力（をかける）d skirt
or the 疲れた／うんざりした fella from Baltimore
dreaming of 保険 costs, funny money, and 医療の 実験（する）s
better than the 残り／休憩（する）. He snores. Our train moves on,
or so it seems.

飛行機で行くing Phobia

My imagination entertains
endings, a final curtain
in an airy 災害,
eerie 空気／公表するs above the ground.
My beloved white phantom stallion
急落（する），激減（する）ing Earthward
with torn wings -
final moments. Imagine,
watch while the kindly horse doctor
puts 弾丸 to brain.
My beloved Lippizzaner of love
must be put 負かす／撃墜する.
A 解放（する） from 苦痛, 解放する／自由な at last,
as the nose, velvet nose, kisses
the ground.
The muzzle rakes the ground,
the soft nostrils,
all this imagery in a jumble,
a pile-up in the aerie.

I just cannot 飛行機で行く any more,
my father said. He is dead.
Not from a 衝突，墜落.
It was just Mr. Death who
（機の）カム and got him
while kith and 肉親，親類 milled around
in a 持つ／拘留するing pattern,
weeping and wondering.
But he was alive, very alive
earlier in my story:
The big boss 申し込む／申し出d to send me
to Europe, he told me, 現実に
smiling, a 商売／仕事 trip -
really a boondoggle though.
The 長，率いる honcho said take your time,
see the sights.
My father sighed. He told me,
I couldn't go,
I just couldn't get on
the fucking 計画（する）.
苦痛. His vials of pills
were all lined up in a 列／漕ぐ／騒動
next to 井戸／弁護士席-thumbed copies of
THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY,
TIME, and ADVERTISING AGE.
He was 井戸／弁護士席 read, but 敗北・負かすd.
Some bad flights. Bad nights.

It's just （疑いを）晴らす-空気／公表する turbulence,
the stewardess told me.
Beware
of neurotic poetesses who ask about
turbulence, who cannot 想像する
floating on 空気／公表する,
who probably cannot 急に上がる like an eagle
説 baby, oh baby, when they come,
but see or feel only the thought
of 急落（する），激減（する）ing Earthward
like a 石／投石する, a horse, a dream,
粉々にするing, or suddenly -
Splat! Like a 風刺漫画.
Flight attendants now:
there's no "ess" tacked on any more.
S is for 軽食s, for Sigmund,
for the saints, who are supposed
to 停止する a 757. Easily.
Try to think soothing thoughts,
a place you would like to be
that's what an anesthesiologist
once whispered to me
before we counted to ten.
Some people have amazing and
delightful dreams when
they're out 冷淡な, he told me. I cried,
and then tried: I imagined
the sound of stillness,
lapping water 反映するing a （疑いを）晴らす sky,
no 計画（する） in sight, no messages.

Shards

Archaeologist,
what else
might be 控訴，上告ing to you?

On this millennial buffet
we can 申し込む／申し出 subliminal shards,
fragments,
couplets, sound bites,
short takes, outtakes.
Or
a 500-word-主題,
quick sketches,
one roll of film,
one diskette in the dust.
Or a rhyme imbedded
in out-of-date ソフトウェア.
明言する／公表する-of-the-art epithets are here
to reward you
for getting
under our 肌.
Aesthetics?
What will you regard as beautiful,
harmonious,
perfect as a wheel,
an Arab stallion,
a gold coin
耐えるing
the 注目する，もくろむ of God,
the 直面する of a goddess.
In two thousand years
you will dig up the 国／地域d coin
but not our 注目する，もくろむs,
not the 涙／ほころびs of goddesses.
What can we 株 then?
Will the 発言する／表明する of the thrush in the last forest 十分である,
or sculpted archaic smiles,
a picture of us?
Agreed,
perhaps archival poems
will 耐える.
Look: a song, a ditty, an epic,
epigrams witty,
jokes.
The carcass of a movie 星／主役にする,
a racy car,
the jawbone of an ass
and a door ajar
to the 廃虚
of a 寺
in 栄誉（を受ける） of
hamburgers.
If you find these things agreeable,
we are amenable.
Amen,
whatever may pass 召集（する） or 情熱,
and earn your professional 尊敬（する）・点,
we think
will earn our 調印（する） of 是認 too.
This 調印（する） itself,
a poem of 大打撃を与えるd metal, ソフトウェア.
What do you think?
Will it last,
持つ／拘留するing 急速な／放蕩な,
in your imagination and 地雷?
Is our gold 基準
the thing to treasure,
in our 会合 of the minds?
What remains
after all those sunsets,
what ぐずぐず残るs
in your distant dark?
Fingers,
bones,
pixel points of light,
the ultimate artist's touch?