Birth poem for Solomon Grundy
*
I remember him taking Latin in year 1 of University, but for the life of me
I don’t remember tying my shoes. Did that happen? In year one?
*
He sits on the bench and she opens up her notebook/heart to him
She says let me show you my diamonds
They are like travel slides from a long and difficult journey
Pink and brown
Red and even more red
She says they represent the land
Little pieces of me
Here is my engagement
In the middle she puts the clocktower, with its tall, perfect spires
*
Now, here is the real church
A birthstone
This is not a place you can get to before me
She says think of it as a leaf
Think of it as pristine
We must extoll its blessings
It is like a relationship
The way things partly worked out
The way there is a lack of devastation, over here
The way there are rules, there are rules, there are rules
*
It is sinister though
The look in the bagman’s eye
Tom Selleck or Thomas Magnum
Sent to collect from her
Hairy chest and mustache
His warm tropical shirt contrasting
With her cold gray one
Does she have money
What will he do with her
Will she fit in the back of the car
He’s contemplating the book cover of the book she’s reading
Dostoevsky’s The Idiot
Probably not a book he’s read before
Probably not
She asks, have you read this page
Have you read this page
He doesn’t think so
They go on and on
And meanwhile the jewels shake in her hand
And she’s not even sure if she can remember him
She says
Come back in a week
I’ll have it then
*
This punishment though
This stone
If she acknowledges it she is done for
If she ignores it she is a fake
There is the moon
It is her headrest
It is the hardest one
It feels like a fist
This bright calamity
That is what she would call it if she had a name for this thing
It is bloody, bloodred, blood blood blood
Blood blood-moon
*
What if
He’s thinking of her?
Your shirt made me gravely ill
Green brown mausoleum
The way I feel certain about things
The way for example
6 men can gather around a coffin
And do it no good
The way for example
The word “Trowbridge”
Sounds like the word “drawbridge” and it sounds like the word “troll-bridge”
But it is not either one of them but just a street I used to live near
And where I once bought a pint of whiskey for a party
This was next door to the drycleaners where I picked up my suit
My grandfather was dying
Where was my damn suit
Where were my golden cufflinks
We got in the car
We went to the Plaza and rode to the 73rd Floor
The room was spinning
I wanted to fly far, far away from that and find myself on a different planet