really to anyone who’ll listen

how could he come along and leave like that

not even buying a ticket

+

Like possible footprints on the ocean floor

possibly there possibly not

that’s the way her memory paces

to and fro to and fro

and who exactly are you anyway

to and fro with your talk of a kiss gone missing

and your all in all and your wherewithal

and all of those things that aren’t material

that’s not what we want from an answer

no we never wanted anything like that

maybe snow melting and frost in a field

maybe sand that shuffles aside when she whispers

+

Don’t play the music don’t play the music

says the man

who walks around town saying

over and over don’t play the music 31

all songs being made

as we know from things that hurt

ice that melts flames that fall from the sky

yes all of that and more

all of that and more

and the father goes on singing

long after his daughter leaves the church

+

Last night in the world’s last city

no one much about

though here you are again turning a corner

and there are the abandoned cruise ships

just imagine

no one lives there now

and here you are again

stepping around small fires

it’s all moonlight and shipwrecks these days

kids and parents jumping off the wharf

the orchestra breaking up the ballroom

to make warm ocean anyone could swim in

32

Falling Asleep

I lift the small boy out of the sandpit

where he might easily have slept

till dawn. He is the first of his kind

or the last, it is hard to be sure.

Soon the oldest pair

will be taking the floor,

the girl with the wistful stare, the boy

with the tumble-down hair. What

will their lives be, singly or together,

we all probably wonder. They don’t wonder,

and I don’t really either, so now they dance

and I have again disguised myself

as a sad man in his sixties. What a strange

and puzzling person! Please introduce me!

I am running around inside the sad commotion.

33

The Terrible Singers

The boy and the girl sing to each other.

Home is a word that floats above the trees.

I know that voice, sings the girl.

I know that song, sings the boy.

They are both ashamed of their parents.

2

37

Noah

I abandoned the bad band

and joined the good band: I thought

that we would flood the world with music.

The first rains came and soon the trees

were somehow growing out of water –

we travelled through the forests

by canoe.

Eventually we built our boat,

the famous one with windows and the deck

of many roofs. Things that once were mountains

sailed on by, and then the whole of the world

had gone, and everything was sky. And yes

I brought the instruments aboard – too late for some,