Guy walks up to me in the park and says, “My girlfriend killed
    James Brown,” and I start to say, “Do I know you?” but
I don’t want to miss out on the story, so I say, “No lie!” and he says,
    “Yeah, I got bumped up to first class, and when I saw who
my seatmate was, I went back to economy and told my girlfriend,
    and even though she had the flu, we switch places, and three

   Because I make the big bucks fooling around
with words, in France sometimes I like to say
   "Sylvia Plath" instead of "s'il vous plait,"

                                                                                pigs,
and this one pig wallowed in his slough
as the others chewed grass and made pig

We all know where we will be a hundred years from now:
beyond the dailiness of this slow panic
and the fear always present behind the look of denial;

To get to this place, 
you must go through the village which is above.
If you find yourself before the mountain

They have come from dinner at the nearest new restaurant—
you know the kind: bottle glass in the window,
brass rails, and a fanciful line of red neon

A lovely suburban colonial,
built in the 1950s
(that era of civil defense)
had a bomb shelter in the basement

If you're thinking of going to Syracuse,
   be modest and do not expect
the bronze warriors of Reggio

The Rector's picking something from his teeth
(lunch) when I ring his doorbell to inquire
if I might see the church. (He plays it with

They are there in every weather
in my imagination,
as they were in the mountain town