Weights and Measures: Pantoums Sold Locally

-->

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Pantoums Sold Locally

My new book entitled Pantoums is now being sold locally at the Wicked Good Books independent bookstore, located at 215 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970

wickedgoodbookstore@gmail.com

No comments:

The Custom House

Another age: our greed-governed ancestors

Venture forth, significant supercargoes

Compelling the twins: speed and economy.

They bounded oceans for Madagascar

Or Malay, craved the Orient’s garb.

We watch for their return with telescope

Of brass: pennants streaming, hull stowed with teas

And silks. We dream them into our harbors.

We await tribute from captains now arrived,

Long doldrumed—their ships in need of repair:

Sails split and rotting, spars sprung.

Ascending the granite steps, these dangerous men,

These men unable to meet our tariffs

Curse the collectors of the world, the weights

And measures; their minds unbalanced, salt-eaten.

They sulk impatiently, clawing their daggers:

We’ve seen their kind before.

Once in every while a revolution;

They murder us at our desks: stabbed with pen,

Bludgeoned with ink bottle. We disappear

For a time: there are advantages,

Our ghostly machinery still keeping account.

In the end they always pay.

Pages

Search This Blog

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Pantoums Sold Locally

No comments:

Post a Comment