Her in her hat, him in his casket,
both covered with daisies.

Too many flowers      in some houses      banked callas

	given an accident outside the gates.

			Is there a way to eat cake without feeling,
		without feeling greedy?

The band under an awning
and women on platforms again:

		so many inches of wishing
			to be slender      see further      be seen.


Order-taker, a carter,
		    his horse jumps away from the engine.

Taste the bourbon vanilla, the egg.

We’re eating leaves of grass
in sandwiches, suffering
creatures in the corners of our eyes:

		children in cheap crepe	           like miniature servants.

* * * *

He hummed the same jingle
always when he walked with them,
his hands on the backs
of their necks.

		Scent of his sweat
      clean as bread.

			Strenuous to lift, to carry,
strenuous to bend and twist. Strenuous incense
masking morbidity, strenuous to use
the muscle, memory.                                                                            

Strenuous to break
from a dream of him covered 
with shaving soap

saying my
	name in his near-
sighted eyes. 


after Katherine Mansfield