Upon innumerable stars the boy
reckoned the generations he’d beget;

You watch it. It may be
your pity stirs for all of those white flowers

Bit by bit you conquer the whole house,
and your savage mother’s heart.

Wordless I watch
the faded evening glow, cloudlike
in the window of this late city train,

I drink
make Yuri cry
get scared, lose heart

Little Yuri in her very best clothes
charges off across the white sand,
etches a circle in return.

I will build you a flag of how I know:
I am counting blackbirds as they fly away,
When you walk by,

There are real tigers in that jungle,
But I walked through it and came out alive.
My skin is tougher now where they clawed me.

Imagine starting with that option
(a deistic turn of faith, or generosity?)
each lens minutely tinted a petition-

All night you talked about your work, how the market would go up and up, how there was nothing to lose no matter how great the risk. The women loved you for that. A strong wind blew in from the bay, but it did not so much as ruffle your hair. The wheels of the Chrysler spun freely in a ditch.