A Prologue: 1/19/2021

Our mailbox is new, and smooth. 

A tightness 

of grief when the door is closed 
on generously stamped postcards, 
messages meant for overseas friends 
in Lambeth. 

​

Years ago

he showed me the Blake murals 
blocks from his flat: traces 
of uncanny

godhead in toenail tile, lurking 
under a bridge.
I looked for bags of onions, 

​

a roll
of coins, blanket folded tight
underarm. 

​

But
there were only prophecies

​

frozen in industrial time,

a few chipped
lambs

​

slow to their slow sharing.

 

And
the parsonage 
across the street
has been sold. 

​

A pink
couch lifted on the sidewalk,

​

carried in 
through 
their open 
front door. 

 

Yesterday, 
the couple and their teenage son 
emerged with matching black T-shirts.

 

They turned
to take in the neighborhood, on foot. 

 

I waited for them to make the corner 
before pulling out of our driveway. 
Fear of bloodguilt, flattened
dogs, lawsuits, slashed tires.

​

They have uprooted
the old Jesus is Risen sign 

 

left over from last
Easter.
   

My French is not fresh
enough for the Pensées.

​

In Paris we once sat across from
an old man on the metro. He was practicing
his English with calls to dig mass graves 
for socialists. 

​

It was hot that summer, before
the cathedral burned. We swooned
through the opera, sweated and stank
in a box with three strangers. Orpheus
called out to the dead. 

​

After, we stood on the street.
Weeping, unafraid of happiness.

​

I wanted to play Gluck’s last chorus
for the fascist on the train. 

 

His false teeth
would grow true. His lips
would bleed schoolboy Latin.

​

The neighbors are putting up
a swing on their porch. 

​

I want to believe 
they will not come out

shooting.

​

I want to meet them
on our lawn
and share

​

chords
for the song I have been learning
since Sunday. I am down I am down,
I am down in a deep, dark hole.

​

The melody is simple enough, and
when I found the deep, rumbling
part of my voice, I could feel
the soil shift in my hair, 

​

behind
my ears.

 

It is winter here, but
the earth

is not cold.