The Dogwood The Answer

THE DOGWOOD THE ANSWER


The dogwood is no answer
it is opulent wax
the moon finally in our hands
and this is what the moon
smells like in our atmosphere
this night of ours
that needs so many flowers


2.

the gypsies I remember were dirty
too clever to be dangerous
too languid to dance beneath
the moon really belonged to them
who else could own
so costly a thing, sellable,
undeliverable, the dreams
of unwed mothers


3.

the houses that we had had iron
gates or hedges so thick
you couldnt see a girl through
though she wore a bright red jacket
and her iceskates jangled in her hand
and you could see her breath above
the knotted branches


4.

it is what comes down the street that makes us


5.

the street the street the ice
alarming autumn catches yellow
elm leaves in, Batchelder
south to Avenue U, in those days
not very far from the sea.


Quiet and the shell
opens
a sound out
beneath any sea
we may have happened
to hear -
something
far, itself, no land
in sight, not
all this island music.


Robert Kelly

Posted over on Nicole Peyrafitte