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Us among new panels ofsun in the buildings blasting light silently Back and forth across streets between them: could have moved with her In all this over the floods ofglare raised up in sheets the gauze Distances where warehouses strove to become over the ship I had ridden Home in riding gently whitely beneath. Ah, lift us, green City water, as we turn the harbor around with our legs lazily changing The plan ofthe city with motions like thistles like the majestic swirl Ofsoot the winged seed ofpigeons and so would have held her As I held my head a-stammer with light defending it against the terrible Morning sun ofdrinkers in that pain, exhalting in the blind notion Ofcradling her somewhere above ships and buses in the air like a water Ballet dancing deep among the dawn buildings in a purely private Embrace ofimpossibility a love that could not have been guessed: Woman being idea temple dancer tough girl from Bensonhurst With a knee rebuilt out ofsunlight returned-to amazement 0 claspable Symbol the unforeseen on home ground The thing that sustains us forever in other places! The BirthdayDream At the worst place in the hills above the city Late at night I was driving cutting through The overbalancing slums. There was no soul or body In the streets. I turned right then left somewhere Near the top, dead-ending into a wall. A car Pulled out and blocked me. Four men detached from it. I got out too. It was Saturday night the thrill Oftrouble shimmered on the concrete. One shadow Had a bottle ofwine. I stood and said, say, Buddy, Give me a drink ofthat wine not at all fearing Shaking as on anything but dream bones dream Feet I would have. He said, We're looking for somebody To beat up. It won't be me, I said and took him By the arm with one hand and tossed him into the air. Snow fell from the clearness in time for there To be a snowbank for him to fall into elbow-first. He got up, holding the wine. This guy is too big, He said, he is too big for us; get the Professor. Four ofus stood together as the wind blew and the snow Falling) .May Day Sermon) and Other Poems / 282 Disappeared and watched the lights ofthe city Shine some others appearing among them some Going out and watched the lava-flow ofheadlights off In the valley. Like a gunshot in the building next to us A light went out and down came a middle-aged man With a hairy chest; his gold-trimmed track shorts had YMCA Instructor on them and I knew it was time For the arm game. We stretched out on our stomachs On top ofthe dead-end wall. On one side was the drop We had all been looking into and the other side sank Away with my car with the men: two darks lifted Us toward the moon. We put our elbows on the wall And clasped palms. Something had placed gold-rimmed Glasses ofwine beside us apartment lights hung in them Loosely and we lay nose to nose at the beginning Ofthat ceremony; I saw the distant traffic cross him From eye to eye. Slowly I started to push and he To push. My body grew as it lay forced against his But nothing moved. I could feel the blood vessels In my brow distend extend grow over the wall like vines And in my neck swell like a trumpet player's: I gritted Into his impassive face where the far lights moved this is What I want this is what I came for. The city pulsed And trembled in my arm shook with my effort for miles In every direction and from far below in the dark I heard the voices ofmen raised up in a cry ofwild Encouragement ofterror joy as I strained to push His locked hand down. I could not move him did not want To move him would not yield. The world strove with my body To overcome the highways shuddered writhed came apart At the centerline far below us a silent train went by A warning light and slowly from the embodying air was loaded With thousands ofghostly new cars in tiered racks The light like pale wine in their tinted windshields. The culture swarmed around me like my blood transfigured By force. I put my head down and pushed...

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