Female flesh 
Dissolving into artichokes 
Exploding stars 

in    could    both

whose
on          posite

Day changes from cannon to morning glory
her body dances death dances in the prell light

beads strung out all through Japan’s public parks, my head,

Lie facedown in the pulsating mantra:
                                         dried flowers bathed in sunshine
Of slowly submerging monograms

dinah
shoreme
etsthocea

I thought that if I could put it all down, that would be one way. And next the thought came to me that to leave all out, would be another, and truer, way.

clean-washed sea

The flowers were.

The soldiers were in the habit of saying that a dying

soldier was “going west.” Are you going west on your

vacation? We turned west at Allentown and drove west-

veteran postage and were honorable if yes based on where do you wish along dotted cut post office box or print a campaign badge or service medal 5000-C through July i, 1955 ex-service daughter who died in civil service appointment to use in item 4 your telephone not write in this space number during wartime has not remarried Idaho, Montana, Ponce de Leon Avenue inside the fold here heavy lines at perforations the same number on both answer copy to each erase errors you remove that please Spanish Sex of birth tentative Pitzer, La Sierra, Talladega to expedite our space

The weight falls downward of its own volition
Bringing to the ground its iron embrace

 Innumerable scratches on the shore
        Like an old alley shot toward the stars