We walk over a bridge into ancient history
of hills, trees, mud flats and the Sound
like pictures of antiquity 
you are in a room meandering through powerlessness
of street people.

Heron, Robin, Boat Tailed Grackle Red Breasted Merganser
Hooded Merganser passerines singing Spring; afterward
two cars collide spinning-out in one hundred eighty degrees
winding up facing us stopped short; 
morbid about the world and war;
raw vegetables await chopping for eternal stir fries 
no more Bayville Souvlaki and the best french fries
banished by a blood test with too many Brandy Alexanders in it...

the bathroom is being chopped up by workmen to replace what has
broken down and leaked through living room decay.

she keeps  coming home 
with  haiku she's afraid of
forgetting

she was remembering at Frank's (when he did her hair) to 
look like Shirley Temple and some exotic flute music Zoltan Kodai
on the radio touching on food he said you could not have 
sczeuan... the lobster was done with peas and cream sauce
running for a note pad to scribble on before cooking
after late afternoon harbor fast- walk tune-up

rough gray harbor
fluttering in wind
origami swans

wondering who will get the most plaque the fastest
the test is tofu or turkey for beleaguered coronaries
considered at yesterday's luncheon as usual full of subtle insults;
no one can agree which preserve was the best for birding/
they are breaking down/ splitting up into clicks talking again
again of where they were, where they are going
nothing in the moment.


she is afraid 
of forgetting the haiku
she was starting

fluttering in wind
rough gray harbor
sails origami swans

cold winter sky
ruffles
origami swans

reading about Oedipus knowingly accepting and one of the women
says Frank I don't believe that no one knew about 911 but you bite
your tongue...no time to be outspoken and challenging with the perm
only half done, to maybe have to lose it in hasty embarrassed exit 
but you regret being unable to share the horror as in one of those
movies about Halloween where everyone is massacred
which would not stop it any more than Oedipus.