My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer

BERKELEY IN TIME OF PLAGUE

Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page 5 5 BERKELEY IN TIME OF PLAGUE Plague took us and the land from under us, Rose like a boil, enclosing us within. We waited and the blue skies writhed awhile Becoming black with death. Plague took us and the chairs from under us, Stepped cautiously while entering the room (We were discussing Yeats); it paused awhile Then smiled and made us die. Plague took us, laughed and reproportioned us, Swelled us to dizzy, unaccustomed size. We died prodigiously; it hurt awhile But left a certain quiet in our eyes. A GIRL’S SONG Song changes and his unburnt hair Upon my altar changes; We have, good strangers, many vaults To keep the time in, but the songs are mine, The seals are wax, and both will leak From heat. A bird in time is worth of two in any bush. You can melt brush like wax; and birds in time Can sing. They call me bird-girl, parrot girl and worth The time of any bird; my vault a cage, My cage a song, my song a seal, And I can steal an unburnt lock of hair To weave a window there. ...