THE MERMAID'S CALLING CARD
The winter blinks its eyes coquettish
then faints as all dreams do at last--
I've saved you flower, fin, and fetish--
all you had to do was ask.
_______
PHINEAS, BACK FROM THE WAR
Phineas comes back from the war
carrying a blood-rain cloud in a folded handkerchief.
The only things he will eat anymore
are fresh-caught birds and escargot--
one slows his speech,
the other is anesthetic.
Phineas wears glasses with smoked lenses
and declares it dusk at all times of day.
I bring him his infant child--
he shakes its hand and turns away.
Later, his medals appear
in the crib, like ribboned toys.