LEAVES IN THE GRATE
Owl chatter in the street
Keeps Eurydice distractedI see the spin-rain fright up from the car tires
In the broken inner of my mind
Whipped back through New York
Memories shares, like shadows,
Out of welfare orifices masquerading
As aid to the downtrodden massesAnd
The gentle explosive patience
Of your talk at the Trieste
Big round front table
For emergencies and reliefYour calm guitar motion
Above the sidewalk pigeons
No fear of the rainbow
Or the heart's betrayalsCast out fragilities
Playful conceitsAnd the wall
Beyond which none may penetrateThe angularities and flow
Of your painting on my kitchen wall
That freedom had catastrope
And joy
Written all over itSun's heavy light
In the shadow of my legsWalking through the old market
Among the thickness of Chinese women
Thirty, forty years older than meNot three days now since
The earth seized EnkiduI got the news in the middle of the night
From Amour among the stars-no
Way to tell when it happened
From early reportsAnd likely friend says
All the good ones
Are getting out early©Peter Sherburn-Zimmer, Oct.1,2008
Back to Tony Vaughan
Spring Birds
by Tony Vaughan, San Francisco artist poet
I see Tony once in a while
in North Beach
down on Market street
at the Trieste
before I get there
just a glimpse of his hat
before he turns his craggy face
toward me
and disappears
into the reality
that he is not there now
cannot be there now
and I am left with his absence
and the emptiness in my heart
and he fills me
with memory
and music
...Peter Sherburn Zimmer
