Who can't but love a soldier wearing mums
In his helmet? A colossal private
Produced a flask of something and toasted

Why I hate to be up in the air,
dangling in a car on a wire strung between two alps
above the village of Chamonix,

I didn’t know there could be so many silences
listening in on our conversation,
or having their own conversations

Tonight I saw Dustin Hoffman
walking down Lexington Avenue.
He lives on 61st Street

Tuned to 104.6 on the FM
dial, the boom box purrs Golden
Oldies I jerk awake to. You
turn beside me, to me, but turning,

A smile shrinks in the continual rains.
The cat stretches without opening his eyes. 
The searches for interest begin, centrifugal 

I hoped to find under my skin
A lump embodying that which
Powers my words invisibly—

Shall I roll the universe
into a ball?
Shall I roll you in between

  There’s been
 a lot of talk,

Remember too hot pride can cool as sweet,
More delicate and richer than deceit.