It’s a Gosh-Darned Interesting Thing to Say

Peacocks and turkeys.  They both fan

Out their tail feathers.  I once

Knew a woman who was chased by a turkey

As she (the woman) walked through the woods.

Have you ever been bullied by a peacock?

The gooseberry wands droop

Full of gooseberries.  The Mayapples

Shyly hide their fruit.  The winds

Embarrass us with their sensuous pull.

The path is scattered with last year’s

Leaves: new green shoots through them

Here and there.  Turkeys are on the move.

Peacocks are defending their landscape

Architecture, their faux castle ruins

And crèches.  It’s a damned

Interesting thing to say.  The mind feels

Dead in some respects.  The women

Of Istanbul are fond of touching beautiful

Cloth, cloth as blue as the Bosporus, cloth

As blue as the dome of a mosque.

I have been befriended by box elder bugs.

They criticize what I have written

By a flick of their antennae.  They can receive

Public radio.  They describe in detail,

In a language we can’t hear, women wrapped

Beautifully in bolts of Bosporus blue.