Don’t call me, I tell you; it’s boring, boring

always to leap to the end of the story.

And this is the end. I’m leaving town.

This is the end: the tents torn down,

the animals making caged animal sounds.

Ever After: A Paradelle

EVER AFTER: A PARADELLE

He lies on his side like a glass knocked over.

He lies on his side like a glass knocked over.

Only a little sweetness left, poor boy.

Only a little sweetness left, poor boy.

Only his little lies, a glass-like sweetness.

Poor he, a left boy knocked over on side.

Now she loves him more, but won’t come back.

Now she loves him more, but won’t come back.

In dreams she cries and paints his face like a girl’s.

In dreams she cries and paints his face like a girl’s.

A girl’s more in dreams. She won’t like him now,

but loves his face. Come back, she paints and cries.

It rains and falls dark on the house they lived in together.

It rains and falls dark on the house they lived in together.

She is alone there, afraid when it falls and breaks over the roof.

She is alone there, afraid when it falls and breaks over the roof.

It is on the roof. Rains and falls. The house afraid

when it lived alone. There she breaks and falls over in dark.

Now, in the dark, he dreams.

She is like a sweetness in his side; she loves him back.

But it paints more lies. Afraid, his face won’t come together.

Little boy lived there on and on alone, only a girl’s poor roof

knocked over. When it breaks, the house cries like they left.

She rains. And a glass falls and falls.

note: for an explanation of the paradelle form, see Billy Collins’s “Paradelle for Susan” in his book Picnic, Lightning.

Sonnenizio on a Line from Drayton

SONNENIZIO ON A LINE FROM DRAYTON

Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part;

or kiss anyway, let’s start with that, with the kissing part,

because it’s better than the parting part, isn’t it—-

we’re good at kissing, we like how that part goes:

we part our lips, our mouths get near and nearer,

then we’re close, my breasts, your chest, our bodies partway

to making love, so we might as well, part of me thinks—

the wrong part, I know, the bad part, but still

let’s pretend we’re at that party where we met

and scandalized everyone, remember that part? Hold me

like that again, unbutton my shirt, part of you

wants to I can tell, I’m touching that part and it says

yes, the ardent partisan, let it win you over,

it’s hopeless, come, we’ll kiss and part forever.