1359

PUT YOURSELF ANY PLACE

The landscape here is a frisbee wobbling to the side.
You can tell when it's day by the light and the noise;
At night sound takes up space in your attention.

Some people use their attention as a storage space.
I'm on vacation when I put myself any place, the radio on,
The band is disqualified for using the same rhyme twice.

Some places feel like money in sunlight and in shade.
The children practicing penalty kicks speak many languages;
A fat tan man watches smiling from the dunes.

The highway is actually a two-lane road through town.
Subscribers can watch a channel that shows traffic on it
At any hour of the day; night vision shows slightly fewer streaks.

In the middle of the night, a produce truck hits the dip
In the road a hundred yards toward town. Sprinklers
Come on at the volume of a whisper, then blast out

At the pitch of defensive geese. There is a horse barn
Just beyond the arborvitae that ought to stink
Like a cattlefarm, but does not. Airplanes about to descend

After returning from Europe pass over pools,
Some lit, most just dotting the full moon for an instant.
Nobody thinks in terms of baseball trivia here.

During the week the beaches are empty and the shops are full.
In the middle of the day it is a pleasure to drive
Under the branches of deciduous trees moving not so much.

The sullenness of the retail class is general and persistent.
The shoppers hold their tension high in their chests,
Staring out at the light during the entire transaction.

Some of the produce is trucked in from a great distance;
Why choose it? Local farms yield vegetables with flavor.
It's like veal, though; can't ask too many questions.

Putting yourself in this place with enough cash is to assure
A well-being the which it is to cry we've accepted or decided
Has to be scarce, inherited, or striven for against all sense.

Music, math, television, sleep, the hubbub of words
Anything at all to make this present moment retain
Against the piling up on all sides of history and what will come.