political modifiers probably restless waiting for the wrong move is this the dream of an old word person or the intervention of reality     furious because of all that optimism which was often gallant     useful in family life fatal only to others or is it because the time rose up on its hind legs just as the air cleared     changed directions     took all the maps in its teeth could you have believed that this system of ours called capitalism having chewed on all those poor

finds equilibrium in steady agony     the man says     mother when I ask     will you help me to die In the morning the body itself becomes impatient with torment’s steadfastness its refusal to make room for that other idea     memory     pain absorbs the street     mother     teacher     friend sky     insatiable pain     leaving only the work of breath     its stubborn hopeless history As in the storm of war     the body of the man which was good is defeated the disease which is

Nonviolent Action begins there Also St. Barnabas House which shelters abandoned children And on the corner of Mott Street Bob Nichols is making a playground single-handed     two mountains     an iron tower from which the cliffs of Houston Street can be observed a maple glade     a ship at sea War The boys from St. Bernard’s and the boys from Our Lady of Pompeii converge on the corner of Bleecker and Bank There is a grinding of snowballs and a creaking of ice The name of our Lord is

correctly in their notebooks     maybe because the word rose is in it My son is happy Now spell sky For this simple word the children turn their eyes down and away     doesn’t he know the city has been quarreling with the sky all of their lives Well, he says     Spell home     he’s a little frightened to ask this of them     What? They laugh     they can’t hear him say What’s so funny?     they jump up out of their seats laughing My son says hopefully     It’s three o’clock but they

see it they went in over their heads He says greed     greed     time nothing is happening fast enough My Father at 89 His brain simplified itself saddening everyone     but he asked us     children don’t you remember my dog Mars who met me on the road when I came home     lonesome and singing     walking from the Czar’s prison One Day I Decided One day I decided to not grow any older lots of luck I said to myself (my joking self)     then I looked up at the sky which is