Saturday, January 21, 2012

AFTER THE DISRUPTION

No one
     comes here 
          anymore


          in the garden
     of earthly delights
the bayside


pools are pools
     of floating 
          palm fronds


          and feathers
     the egret fountains
that once 


spit water
     in delicate arcs
          are still


          there are no 
     lox or omlettes  
on the breakfast 
     
verandah, no
     mimosas, just
          deck chairs sprawled


          everywhere, no 
     mojitos or frappacinos
just mockingbirds


and wing-flapping 
     grackles disturbing
          the palmettos


          pelicans napping
     on the busted
pier posts, ospreys


roosting in 
     the cupola,
          fetching their 


          daily haul 
     of silver fish, 
heron and ibis


stalking the shore--
     all the splendor
          of the bay


          the honeyed mango
     sweetness and oranges,
the turquoise water


and brassy sunset
     bleeding on
          the surface of


everything, it's
     a squatter's spoils,
          this ramshackle 


          hotel, the bohemians
     have all split 
for their squalor


elsewhere, the 
     vagrants occupying
          the spoils 


          of babylon
     took over as we
knew they would.

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