One definition of love
is the grocery list, its
shorthand reckoning

Plain and simple: he failed.
Lost a battle. And the angry
Athenians wanted him dead.

I rode down England
as they fired the crop
that was the leavings of a crop,

After the outburst and the terrible squalls
I hooped you with my arms

That so priceless patience gone
Into these fragments of fret
Intact where the gay figure

“It was your fault! It was your fault!” cried the Peacock.
“And it was yours too,” whispered the Snake.

“It was lust! It was lust!” shouted the Peacock.

Thriftlessly into blue-and-white-tiled pools,
Their splashes mingled with languid sarabandes.

In black and green and white one candle burns
Upon some pages, under a lute that leans
Against a wall. Outside the window pine

      Tourists would photograph
The sky’s long ribs in their eagerness 
     To snatch the whole

                 Passengers will please refrain
            from flushing toilets while the train
         is standing in the station. I love you.