SILENT CITY
errol miller
The sweet smell drifting down
from the neighbor's cozy marriage
under olive trees ancient children dram
of guidance and campfires and mothers
who slip kisses into their nightsongs
o how the central theme of life is death
milling around lonely in a small town
where questions go unanswered
racing through the backyard of my mind
rather intense material there
a ballad of insignificant flesh
a theater of desperate desperation
coming to grips with my throat's heavy air
everyone if falling down with clots
in their purring motors
the thick vapor of morning winging
across the courtyard to marry me
driven by youth to immaturity
scurrying through these darkened streets
it is a soft sachet maze of blue
a field of natural wheat
above my lovebed green rags hang limp
and damp and dangle long and pale
where the Dreamship crashed your lips
touched mine and set in motion
the machinery of fear
and the awful mumbling
of love dying in the hallway.
