“Cleopatra’s palace,” etc.
Cleopatra’s palace lies under water,
pyramids sit sunken off the coast
of Japan; there’s a sunken road off
Bimini; muddy civilizations off shore,
buried under the meltdown of the
last ice age; even older cultures –
Plato’s Atlantis — making Cleopatra
seem like a newcomer — sleep
with the fish. Where will we be found
in another two thousand years?
We are the fossil-makers. Not in shale
will the future fossil hunters find what they seek,
but in measured boxes, some encased in concrete,
many huddled together, heaped limb upon limb,
skull upon skull, shall they find
once-elusive human remains, in prim fields
marked with crosses, stars, crescents,
what-you-may. Those future archeologists
will not find tools as in the past, those will
have found new owners at yard sales or
auctions.
In this ancient edifice of mine,
what creatures lurk in the crawlspace
between the stories? Shall I plant mushrooms
in that dark cave underneath the porch?
How would I retrieve them? What rope
would I use to bring them to me from
that darkness?
Will I be a winner in today’s on-line,
scratch-off lotto? What prize will I win?
How many times will I have to
type my name, address and phone number?
How many chances do I have to win
and what are the odds against me? So
many questions, so few answers.
Where shall we find another Bach to methodically
transport us from the depths of sorrow to the
heights of ecstasy within the forms he mastered?
Who will make us laugh like Haydn did? Will there
ever be another Mozart to carry us on his wings
from birth to death, exploring the depths of our
being? Where will we find another Beethoven
to bring us to the best of ourselves, to show us
how to be more than we are?
Jonathan (son #3) said,
25 January 2007 at 12:46 pm
This collection of verse was found, laser printed in a hanging folder, among a vast collection of his poetry, mostly reprints of familiar ones. There is poetry there from a friend of his (someone he met through me), and some of their correspondence. These lines appear on two pages. The first two seem to be linked, as do the third and fourth, with the last possibly linked, but loosely, with the first two. Why they all appear together I can’t say. It seems unlikely that they were all intended as drafts for the same poem.