October: Emergency

Is that you passing for a flower again,
on a green lawn fallen from a tall tree
where I’m walking with my hands up my sleeves
like leaves curling back into buds?

On a green lawn, fallen from a tall tree
With your skirt in flames around your waist:
Is that you passing for a flower again,
said the fireman, and you wouldn’t answer.

Where I’m walking with my hands up my sleeves
A red truck is parked with water pouring from it
like leaves curling back into buds.
Two blind Dalmatians argue with the dark.

Like leaves curling back into buds,
the petals of her lungs turned inwards.
Her voice sounded through the smoke
Is that you passing? for a flower again –

With your skirt in flames around your waist
you’re a burning village, a word for house,
a red truck. With water pouring from it,
your left hand is briefly a fountain.

Two blind Dalmatians argue with the dark.
Will they find their way back from the sea, I
said. The fireman and you wouldn’t answer.
we stood together on the lawn and watched her burning.

---

Package Tour #1: Southern Italy

two guitars strung up between a set of trees
with yellow rope
convicted of entering town past curfew.

your neck unbroken
is simply your neck,
your face folding inwards at its edges
like the brim of a collapsible hat.

under strange tables,
fruit and water.

••

the cave of miracles
at Anacapri.

••
			you had sunglasses on.
			the guide said,
			take off your sunglasses,
			then:

	guessing games		eye spy
hangman on restaurant napkins

then:
 a pillar
with your water bottle on it
which held under a tap	is the lucky fevered baby
with cool water on its forehead.
	
you think about finding
something, a baby in a foreign country

on the plane, you think
of its camel skin

	camel olive taupe

that dark green khaki, there is a name for it
in catalogues, you know it, almost,
	that dark green khaki.

it would be in a natural place
bundle of heat
hold it under the tap
fresh water for visiting the lemon orchards
at Anacapri.

••

salmonella

••

— was grumpy and wanted only
meals

	but there is little point in bringing you anywhere very interesting if all you'd 
rather think about is all rather		meals		wanted never too far walk went 
point
bringing you here	if all you think about 	walk	is meals when all you think about
meals	meals

straticella porcoline prosciutto pesca fresca 	esca	 esca	

					••salmonella••

Passport size matters.  Eye colour
	vegetarian	Weightt: blue	Height: Occasionally
Nationality:  evenings and weekends after 5 PM

Please have photo identifriskation ready redy redably readbbley for verifriskation
Verificat	magnifique	Please.

••

      It's much too hot.		But we see
the sky at night through mud.  When did
      the moon bake for us?	It isn't
matronly that way.  Nonmaternal.  You never
      baked us a thing,	just these tossed
dewy salads in the morning.

•••

This civilization has been extinct for four thousand years, which relied in all things on 
mud.  A peevish culture, they were always breaking things.

•••

Mud is notoriously useless
for magnifying things.

We thought/ if we got lightning to strike it/
the effect would be like lightning to sand/
the effect of glass.

Mud wouldn't glass.  A disappointment.

Eagflic said:

	"Tempered to a firm glow, mud under water is wetly elegaic—algaeic."
which means a dry thinning to make
brittle lenses.
	Never see-through enough.

I needed glasses growing up
	but the only glass we had was mud
	so they put mud in my eyes
and had me stand beneath a lamp
until it dried.

	Corrective lenses,
my driver's licence read.

There are some things you can't make out of mud,
said the young revolutionary,

so we made a rope of mud to hang her.

It wouldn't tighten enough
and the skies began
to rain,		rain rain	rain

	"Weave grass into it," said Eagflic.

It held, then.

•••

	why you're
	you're talking my ear off
	
you're certainly talking
	quite a bit
would you be quiet so I can listen to the guide.

---

(c) Hilary Smith. All rights reserved.

---

back