and paid the subway to become the elevated before
I was fleshed again (my hands!) at the threshold of 3144
Meridian. And although
I
was naked inside them,
I
loved them
as I loved my fate which I believed was shiny
and rich as cordovan and exquisite (the envy) on the street
where hope mirrored truth from my wing tips to infinity
and I believed
I
could wear them and wear them
and not wear them out, these stiff new beliefs.
Harold Schimmel
I'M IN UNIFORM
I'm in uniform fresh fi'om basic training Frank
all leanness of thighs moves to a bass-beat with a glass
ofJim Beam (his partner) on ice Edwin presents me
(this anonymous soldier) and we speak ofa mutual philosopher–
friend's fairness and decency "And when he wants his boy"
O'Hara attacks ... "Wham!" I come-to-after through splintery
seconds of catching on
deer
like river minnows nipping at my toes Jane Frielicher
descending her ladder smiles wily sexy and Frank
devotes himself to pulling at his absent dinner-tie
You in all of this are where?
In the comer
in
the Whistler's rocker - holding court with both
your hands heterosexual and learned ... "ten dollars"
"car keys" and "thigh" in your poems were arranged with
Chardin-like precision or the floral exhibitions (set to the
botanic-calendar) at tlle Isabel Gardiner Museum
from
Lowell
Translated from the Hebrew by Peter Cole
