MARJORIE WELISH
GREENHOUSES AND GARDENS
Of the hunted rabbit, strangel y and undrama ti ca ll y put into,
and who fell into the crib of flowers like the pelt
of the hero. It took rema rka bl e sen sibility
to
pl ace hi s dea th in a ga rden , letting the accidenta l victim
fall as if it fit him in
to
the least statisti call y likely bed.
When Breton describes Arshil e's remembering
it suspiciousl y sounds like
remembering for him. This should be checked .
Gorky a lways exaggera ted hi s sta tes of feeling,
the heat, th e tendern ess, the edible, the lusciousness, the song–
an imi tation orienta l carpet.
I was looking a t it when I realized hi s co lors suspend in the same
way
in a solvent permi ss ive yet sta rved.
I am reading letters transla ted from the Armenian.
The language is secluded . Writing to the person
who is hi s sister he can speak
of hi s provincia l memori es,
th e heat, the tenderness.
. . .
The exto rti oni st grows less .
Deares t beloveds, recall father'S garden
of apricots and ruin s wh ere we used
to
p lay ,
the shrin e, the mill ed whea t
down the path from our house,
and the mo rose clocks
of Arara t or Mont-Ste. -Victoire,
and the Tree of the Cross u pon w hich the authen tic
a lthough sometimes sucpicious and proud crane,
white where he flew, was absent when
Armenian vi llagers attached the co lorfu l
pennants of their cloth ing .
