Winter Sky: New and Selected Poems, 1968-2008

The Flag Page

302 f r o m t h e j u i c e t h e f l a g p a g e in the big dictionary my hand always feels how slick and neat the page of imperial flags, the old ones little ensign flags within flags for crown colonies, moon & stars & dhows for the Near East flamboyant clusters of drums & guidons for the smallest islands Tobago Caledonia the strong indigenous beasts of Siam Malaya against a white field or green such treasure for some boy’s collection each to be cut out and labeled in the ledger he tucks away with gusty, secret plans. But I was looking up a word cark The Moores left us their dog to take care of, our namesake Barks, but on a whim I started calling him Carks. Such a terror he is scattering warfare at the poor hedge rabbits like a phantom squad that never needs to reload and catching nothing but ticks. 303 f r o m t h e j u i c e The porch ashtray is full of the seared little drunkards. No one gets any good sleep or work done with that hangdog underdog around. What to do with Barks look at this 1 cark /kark/vb (ME carken, lit.to to load, burden, fr. ONF carquier, fr. LL carricare) vt: WORRY vt: to be anxious 2 cark n: TROUBLE, DISTRESS But that did not take care of Barks. He was still there in spite of how I could fancy his name up and pencil it to the flag page. When the sun began to go down nothing could lure him into arm range or even rock range. So one day in the middle of the day when he was tired and sacked out in his bones from a nightful of alarms, I loaded him in the backseat and took him to the SPCA. I’d like to give you a dog. What’s the matter? He barks all night. It will cost you $5. It’s worth it. What’s his name? Barks. Fits. Yes. Thank you very much. Not at all. 304 f r o m t h e j u i c e Come back to see us, Mr. But I was out the door before he could learn my crazy name. ...