18
PARTISAN REVIEW
3.
At midday I swerved aside
to let the garbage truck pass with much rumbling
when outside a jewelry shop I saw my mother
standing
munching dry bread in great haste
from nowhere to nowhere she wanders
homeless and gray as du~t
while in the show window
a tiara of diamonds
multiplies the climax of the narrative
she looked up
and she saw you bet
her hair a lovesong of; the Nile
a 19 year old eyefiller from the Ziegfeld ranks
entering the shop on his arm
to forge the metaphysic of dividends
4.
In thl' city In thr park in the city park
a fountain is playing
without benrfit of policemen or finer emotions
boats ami swans rest in crested slumber
,!lr sun a rea lone
t!lr aitcrnoon an old-fashionrd plank over the d IOwsy pond
Wiele OPCll the cagr of the sky
all the douds have flown
mother ,lllel I breathe the iur
closing our ryes like swans
cradled in clean serenity
rrposing in the dovecote of world luster
a rustlr ill the air
PLOP a stone hits the water
"Ouch what a stink" mother cries
two bourgeois toddle
by
