FROM A BOOK OF POETRY NOT A SPYCRAFT MANUAL

i read one day
in new orleans
chantilly rain
long long ago

learn to put your distress signals in code

& i rolled this over
every which way . . . 

until it popped

& i wondered aloud

to the river crossing

& the willows there -

does it mean maybe like singing the blues ?

~

please itemise your thoughts on this
all phones off
you have one hour
ask if you need more paper

AFTER READING IN THE BATH, POP 1

we draw our bars
write them

try to see out
imagine it

& draw
that too

TO A CRITICAL MASS

but too tho the silence

the dense & concrete silence

well it makes gains up around your chair

like its building to a critical mass

& it 

could be
what some
would use
the word
g r a c e 

about

just not me not yet

i call it a screaming pause