Ars Ecphrastica
Although your fingers and my eyes agree,
It is unheard of, Cameron, what you see—
Describing scenes of color, form, and light
Which you perceive by any means but sight.
Tributes
A Shipwrecked Person
When I woke from my afternoon nap, I wanted
to hold onto my dream, but in a matter of seconds
it had drifted away like a fine mist. Nothing
remained; oh, perhaps a green corner of cloth
pinched between my fingers, signifying what?
Always Tender in the Wrong Places
Two bears and an owl walk into a bar—
the beginning of a joke, maybe,
or a dream.
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
The blued barrels of the shotguns stuck out over the hood of the station wagon, pointing away from the men who were smoking, the smoke rising in the breeze, drifting into the corn field. The corn stalks rustled in the breeze.
Diet Coke
All I saw my mother drink
for years. In the diner, served
with a striped straw and shredded
paper beanie or sometimes
at Stop & Shop just before checkout,
its perfect plastic body pulled from
the squat fridge that sits underneath
the conveyor belt—but most often
sipped from a silver can on the porch.
Fall
“If you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything.”
—Falsely attributed to Alexander Hamilton