FIVE POEMS
s.
we
miss
you, jack-tactfully you (with one cocked
eyebrow) subtracting cliches un by un
till the god's truth stands art-naked: you and the fact
that rotgut never was brewed which could knock you down
(while scotch was your breakfast every night
all
day)
a 3ringbrain you had and a circusheart
and we miss them more than any bright word may cry
-even the crackling spark of (hung in a) "fert
ig"
(tent-sky wholly wallendas)
ready were all
erect your yous to cross the chasm of time
lessness;but two dim disks of stare are still
wondering if the stunt was really a dream-
here's,wherever you aren't or are,good luck!
aberdeen plato-rabelais peter jack
James Merrill
THE GRAPE CURE
For two days feed on water. The third morning
Drink water and eat, some twenty minutes after,
Th~
first of your grapes. In as many weeks as you need
You shall be cured. What happens, in plain words,
Is a purging, a starving not of yourself but of what
Feeds on you, hangs down like a crab from your heart.
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