The Blackbirds Are Rough Today
lonely as a dry and used orchard
Spread over the earth
For use and surrender.
Shot down like an ex-pug selling
Dailies on the corner.
Taken by tears like
An aging chorus girl
Who has gotten her last check.
A hanky is in order your lord your
Worship.
The blackbirds are rough today
Like
Ingrown toenails
In an overnight
Jail –
Wine wine whine,
The blackbirds run around and
Fly around
Harping about
Spanish melodies and bones.
And everywhere is
Nowhere –
The dream is as bad as
Flapjacks and flat tires:
Why do we go on
With our minds and
Pockets full of
Dust
Like a bad boy just out of
School –
You tell
Me,
You who were a hero in some
Revolution
You who teach children
You who drink with calmness
You who own large homes
And walk in gardens
You who have killed a man and own a
Beautiful wife
You tell me
Why I am on fire like old dry
Garbage.
We might surely have some interesting
Correspondence.
It will keep the mailman busy.
And the butterflies and ants and bridges and
Cemeteries
The rocket-makers and dogs and garage mechanics
Will still go on a
While
Until we run out of stamps
And/or
Ideas.
Don’t be ashamed of
Anything; I guess God meant it all
Like
Locks on
Doors.
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