Windows on the West
Turn the kaleidoscope and the seventy-eyed creature
Stretches, yawns, shakes the roof snow
Off its back in clumsy dollops, gets a glow
Going, cries of ‘It’s freezing!’ (not really, just a feature
Of tenement winter), puts some coffee on, come on—
How can a single one be a multiple seventy—
I don’t know, but I know I like the mystery –
Breathe out, breathe in, never in unison—
‘When did you get in last night?’ – ‘Where the hell
Did you put my razor?’ – ‘Dog has started
To chew things up again’ – ‘Well well,
You were going to give it a bone, that’s your department’ –
‘That was never what art meant,
Pictures falling off the wall, everyone has a -’
‘Don’t throw it away. I might need it’ –
‘You’ll never write a line if you don’t heed it
When I tell you there’s enough life,
Enough strife
In this old sandstone block
To turn Anna Karenina and The Great Gatsby
Into one noble undefeated cry
Which is the single tenement sigh
Any time, anywhere.
Turn up the heat,
A new day’s always sweet.’
‘Coffee up.’
‘My god another cracked cup.’
