WIP ... from Poem to the end of my days

2/6/2012, Monday
A dream. Roadside sign at Ohio State line – image of a cardinal
Sign removed. The border no longer visible. Only trees, & somewhere, an ocean out of view. Lacan’s uncertain metonymy of sails.
The Red Bird/ signs …
     ...the line between

     OHIO/ & all other states --

     Big Red Machine – of mind
     operated workers from another

     time -- pulled up stakes so to speak

     dream speak
     no marker on the road

     what belongs to one
     has no where

     to wear/ but naked truth

     so say the Elders
     in the groove

     their leaves so many sails
     uncertain is the sea’s great gushing

     one wind for wave & sail & leaf
     alike

     that much at least
     we count on


1989 --
In October the dead oak …
     …like an old god
     gesticulating dogmas at the sun

     thrusts its bony limbs above
     shakes free
     from all the summer plush
     that chokes it round

     the first crimson on the leaves
     lays its halo at his feet

     before his fallen crown

     girls walking home from school
     their uniforms a swirl of green
     recognize the stain

     of color in the air
     the balding prongs that poke
     and rattle at the sun

     when out of the thicket
     a cry!
     blood loosed from the dying season

                a Cardinal

     HURLS his carnal majesty
     against the sun
     crying
     for the loss --

    his pliant ever virgin bride