The high-pressure system followed us
from our apartment and out to where
the houses, scattered on the hills and set apart,

Above us, on the second floor, my mother’s
footsteps creaking fall. When we die, that’s it.
He looks heavenwards: what’s up with dinner?

are any houses. That’s for sure. And as for
cars, trucks, tractors, trailers, motorcycles,
you’re in another universe, friend. At most

In a rowboat, on a lake, the self-actualized man rested,
both oars drawn in, on his lap. The class, in rows, watched
as our high school health teacher held him up,

The sun goes, So long, so long, see you around.
And zone by zone by zone across America
the all-night coast-to-coast ghost café lights up.

Honor, and excellence, and transcendent best,
I was the laurels I denominated:
diadem and queen and diadem’s bearer.

Good old Paul—when he might have been kind
to a kid he, made a pass instead.

Well literally zillions of passes

Astounding! Or Awesome! Or Epochal!
Some such was the word of his election.
The rooftops and street corners blared it.

Like bulls trotting on their solemn rounds
over the cow flops, daisies, clover,
checking out the maidens of the meadow,

Pewter, then silver, the palest gold, an almost
silence we almost could hear, dawn led us out.
So light a sound had lifted us from our pillows.