The Whole Motion: Collected Poems, 1945–1992

Obstructions

From a can ofwater, and sat Again above the bay, which loved the Word, and caught My country's ships in such a full And furious holocaust ofsoul, The lines ofashen text marked offthe graves Where all my men, who sailed the ships, must die For lack ofGood, that I drew offthe page. I bit the silent tongue Ofmen and angels, reading on In the sound ofengines run-up on the strip, A grizzle offly-wings, saying, ''Who asks for Truth as a time like this Is shut from pity, and will slay his own Whose vision kills the meaning ofhis view: Only the larger war, with God, Half-knows such seeming peace." Obstructions Things placed there First a cornfield Where you wandered, drunk on your own afterbirth, Weaving and crying. The ears on the stalks were blackened Two clouds went over the sun Like lop-ears, and when they passed, you could see That the rows ofcorn each made A little road; down one Ofthese you stumbled, and where you came out A deer was eating the rotten shucks Beyond that Men, boys almost men, Stood before a goal, And you dressed in plastic and leather, Carrying something in your arm, And fled into the midst Summons / 8 Into the grunting midst ofthem. They opened like rows ofcorn, And you plunged through Into a motel In Fresno, California Where a girl with a face you'd forget Lay tangled in sheets. In the early morning you rose, In the gray, still light, And tumbled into the swimming pool Whose waters lapped and tingled With the mighty rhythm ofcottages Where the pilots lay with their girls Drunk on that water You crawled barefooted over A rusted aircraft engine, A Pratt and Whitney Pulled out ofthe ocean and junked, Crusted with barnacles, The cylinders fused into the block From too much water-injection. Past that it was moonlight Shining over the island, The graves out ofsight Every which way you could swivel. Naked, you got ready, and set out With a canteen of bourbon And grapefruit juice, Through the graves that opened in fans Ofinfinite, knee-high perspectives, Shifting like spokes ofthe wheel That turned Okinawa through sea-foam. Various ships took you away To schools, to peacetime France, And at last into the lap Ofstudents, each looking at you Obstructions / 9 With the stone question In the heads ofGreek statues Who ask where their arms And legs and the tips oftheir noses Have gone. Your two sons took you Under the arms, out through The students, aging themselves, And brought you to a broad field, Green turning paler with dusk. You pulled a cane from a bush And sat there, looking at nothing But how it all whitens and darkens, Bourbon and beer still fasting, Still tasting ofghosts, who all like it. The Confrontation oftheHero -April, 1945Claw -hammer, hay, and grease, We club the engine from its crate, Swinging, and harness the nacelle. The dog's head blown from earth By propeller blast, then buried, then Stencilled to hem the nosewheel in its jaws, Looks offbetween us at quiet, Increasing, until there is a sound. I drag on the hemp and chain ofthe pulley, But the engine grinds into coral. Line astern through a smoked first sketch For swans, the craft come over. You place your foot, still, forward Sleeping in its flesh, road by road Into the island, and the coral shudders, Gives way, turns easily, a zodiacal wheel, And the beasts step from their stars over you And disappear in the sea and earth ofnoon. For a second you seem to move among them, Summons / IO ...