POEMS
LINK CHAIN
Palm Sunday. Banana leaves
Loll in the breaklight. Back home, on Ravine Street
25 years ago, Philbeck and I
Would count the crosses, arrange
The pins on their silver plate, and bank
On a full house. The palm crosses, tiny
And off-green against their purple cloth,
Are stacked like ricks for the match flame. 11 o'clock.
I take a cross and 2 pins-
One for the cross, and one again for the heart.
On the front seatof a Yellow Coach,
Pistol Red at the wheel, 10 miles this side of Surgoinsville
On US ll-W, I'd lay my body down, in Tennessee,
For the 1st time. The 2nd time
I'd pick a tree, black cherry,
That grows on the north side of Chestnut Ridge, and looks out
Over the Cumberlands;
I'd build a floor and face west.
For number 3, I'd float in a boat down river,
Whatever river, and be a leaf.
