(tongue twisters, etc. for e.e. cummings)

THE CHEAP SHEIKH AND THE CHIC SHAH SEEK TO SPEAK AT A SECRET SPA.

((THE CHEAP SHEIKH AND CHIC SHAH SEEK TO CHEEK TO CHEEK AT A SECRET SPA. . .))

In the evening
haze darkening on the hills,
purple

Rain putters down on the wood shingles overhead,
now smattering heavily, becoming
a language I think I will learn one day

Possibly a child is not damaged immediately
but only after some time has passed.
When the parent who sits on the edge

Through a dark winter 
In a cold chambre de bonne 
I lay still and dreamt

We walk across the snow,
The stars can be faint,
The moon can be eating itself out,

a few feet about the sunken green bank
where a man used to sit and think

the flock shifts weight like a snowplowing skier
and turns, and yahonks and spirit-cries
toward that flow of light spelled into its windings

A tiny creature moves
through the tide pool, holding up
its little fortress foretelling

another lifetime is up for us,
another life is upon us.