I Trust A Litter Of Kittens Still Keeps The Colosseum - Joan of Arc

I saw the two chevy minuet in the alley

I heard Maggie call 'Hello' to a toilet flushing

And Angie say she guesses I’m not home

Sammy laughed 'Maybe Grandpa’s napping in his chair --

Eyes half open and head thrown back

His teeth slip to tempt his chin.'

I was a shivering bombadier when I married Maggie

Angie was eight months old when I first said Hello

She was thirteen when I lost her

When She’d grown too big to dance on her daddy’s toes

And I was but what 23 in Memphis

22 through Dresden and Essen

My think weak tin canteen’s bent seam’s slow dribble wet

My hip with each step

I learned my airport and train station lessons in

The heavy heave and whistle of my breath

And now here I am in my own uptown closet

Alone with my cauliflower nose

But on an overnight train home

Over open dirt years ago

I lost what I’d known all along

And from then on it would be only to myself

I’d belong

And is this my last stand?

A call to arms to lower back and finally stop asking

Each other what’s wrong

All the time