I sit on a bench eating cherries,
Amazed that I wasn’t cheated,
For the whole bag is ripe and deep red.

Sweet element, disguise,
like a partial illustration—
it is our own inviolable corruption.

When the husbands turn their noses up,
the wives are distraught. Some buy chic new clothes
or sheer lingerie, while others will intentionally do neither.

You were not there when the bombing started;
you were not there when the others were not there.

There are no cattle in Abilene.
I expected cattle.
I thought they trafficked in cattle in Abilene.

I’ve chosen to take the stairs.
It’s harder, but quicker
than waiting for the elevator
which seems eternally stuck on R—Roof.

It’s a little later. And very dark and quiet now.
A few scattered lights penetrate the empty distance.

City emptiness terrifies—even without the stars.
I mean —the blankness—and silence—have force: gravity.

That it could all come down 
to a man in a room 
empty but for

We ate alone in the immense dining room.
My mother got me to eat each night
by saying any meat was buffalo meat.

To take advantage of the January thaw, I walk
uptown to savor the grapefruits and green
peppers in the winter light, then, returning, turn