Semite

what art and anti-art to lead us by the sharpness

of its definitions connected

to all other things this is the bond

sung to all distances

my distances neither Roman

nor barbarian the sky the low sky

of poems precise

as the low sky

that women have sung from the windows

of cities sun's light

on the sills a poetry

of the narrow

end of the funnel proximity's salt gales in the narrow

end of the funnel the proofs

are the images the images

overwhelming earth

rises up

in its light nostalgia

of the mud guilts

of the foxhole what is a word a name at the

     limits

of devotion

to life the terrible knowledge

of deception

a lie told my loves tragically

pitifully had deceived

themselves had been betrayed

demeaned thrown away shamed

degraded

stripped naked Think

think also of the children

the guards laughing

the one pride the pride

of the warrior laughing so the hangman

comes to all dinners Aim

we tell each other the children cannot be

     alone whereupon murder

comes to our dinners poem born

of a planet the size

of a table top

garden     forest          an awning

fluttering four-lane

highway the instant

in the open the moving

edge and one

is I