IDYLL (AFTER OLIVER HEAVISIDE)

*In memory of Harry*


With your permission, given the hour is late, I’ll take notes under *my* hat in the rain. A Chanukah gift, with the broader brim.

Later, I’d like a beaker of sauternes
with plainsong, please, one of these autumn days
before the onshore breeze makes itself known,
prompting a scattering: what with our knack
for cataloguing clouds, various ideas
of clouds, my studies, what I have dug up

might get boiled down, released into the “cloud”
later, when there should be some trails we
can follow unencumbered to the sea.
Out there to seek a “metric,” what the heck?
I’d very much like to find certain birds,
spend days pretending to be Audubon,

cut loose. Completely. In a continent
mighty surprised to see me. Being new.

*For Nina & Phoebe*

VIII.19.2014

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