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errol miller




Where the Delta Ends




Tomorrow, in the morning
an alternate route with death
on the faces of the Booray Tenants
the future will have a mind of its own
and sunshine will spill out from Oxford's square
they will renovate the seashore and the mountains
they will redecorate Star City for the New Age
a big green engine will idle in our living room
downtown, in New York City, and across the Heartland
on Omaha's bright and shining dusty oilcloth plain
gradual changes will escort the travelers to Shantytown
six gray horsehair men and a flying Tristar airbus
with decals of the white busts of the Saints
the voice of God demanding things in their places
rushing into a river fusing with Jordan, the story
is out of Chicago, the story is not pure fiction
they are the chosen ones, the actors, the ivory people
all the loving will be ending, all the sweet things
said and done, all the hickory firewood split
Granny is dead and applies dty on tin roofs
the marshals of town have put Papa away
and Mama is rocking into infinity, in
these mirrors I see a drawing board, a plan
defeat in the jaws of victory, an American Eagle
coming for each of us in a little country place
out past Cordova's brackish waters, past
Urbana's closed mill, once upon a time
in a complete novel Cinderella danced all night
in the bitter winter cold of Memphis: then
she went home to a papered pastel room and wept
the darkness on the Delta becoming a noose of insanity
that formless region we enter and do not understand
where female moths flap away delirious
from smoky kerosene lanterns and the aroma
is of curds and whey and spoiled fish
and an old woman with beer breath.



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