Omens

The dead roses in the garden;
the scum on the still pool;
the silence of garbage pails
standing like soldiers
awaiting orders to move on;
the silence of the dog house;
a general sense of absence:
absence of life and motion,
of blood in living veins,

absence of vitality
at the end of an age
steeped in corruption.
Not only in high places
but in the lower classes
this deathly quietude
fell abruptly.

The post man the ice cream truck
never came;
the lawns went unattended;
the schools closed up;
and the churches,
even the churches were vacant
and Our Lean Savior On His Tree Wept
And His Mother swept
Her stony garments and sighed;

and even the weathervanes
were statuesque
for scarcity of wind;
and not one mourned
in the stupefying nothingness that abounded.



early 90s (imitating T.S. Eliot)