we�ve left our good manners behind with
the company ��he has his arm around my drunken
waist, the other hand shakes fingers

in a naked oration that strips sidewalk poseurs
of their windy fizz

����������������������������his trimmed nails
����������������������������gathering

�������frail light, wandering

��������������like a Bedouin
��������������through ionized air

he leaves crowds standing in their bones
in frames inadequate to bear their claims
and when I also fear

������������������������������������my lack of substance
he places his ancestors on my lips with a kiss

Where are we in these ordinary silences? I ask
as I swallow

����������������������the grandfather answers
� flying past diaphragm and spleen � why ask
questions? the mind is a cuckoo tossing all

������������but itself out of the nest

(the dead, nonplussed and nonpenitent)

����������������dear, look next door
the grandmother urges and the grandfather adds
��������patting avoirdupois

�������������or at the Chinese buffet


� 2004 by PJ Nights