4th


                                                      of July
 
                   bagpipes                                   big mad Hitchcockian crows


siren        families striding       hurrying


                  want a whole lot of love           sings the Joplin


 mimic            white birch         willow swings          pollen


                                                                                                   the cars in shade



                                                          way way down gonna give you my love



  staying in the house

                                    the crows outside are winning

car door       a muffled crowd gasp      wheels at the top of the sky


 and waits

          the night sky's visuals

                       called          "Untamed Retribution"        and "Rain Fire"

 an objective       sincerity         the war does not space itself

 two teenage             girls at the screen           with the sun in their eyes



all day   time takes

 all the time         bright canisters in the culverts         girls read

      hills of it

                     day-long trash truck heads down our street

 what a big

              engine        emergency brake

distance between        telephone pole and queen palm's trunk

                                smoke loops      from back of the house to front

             leaves no signet              in cloud                 sidewalk's scalding path

                                                                                       'neath county's ripe

                                                                                         corn table

                                                                 globe's eggshell



              for romance    the girls layer their tears back into their skin


                         many dawns     the boys waving
                           
                    bends

              air crosses clouds in hot nets

                  increasing          the local tenor's uprightness


fumes exhume

       the crowd stands open-mouthed

                     heads lifted



you
you
you
you
you
and
you
send me

smoke falls through each head of hair

to each ear's
   
                   size and limit

                                                                     love



  sound-chamber'd


                                            moon's



                       far off


place





 
Copyright Credit: Gillian Conoley, "4th" from Peace. Copyright © 2014 by Gillian Conoley.  Reprinted by permission of Omnidawn Publishing.
Source: Peace (Omnidawn Publishing, 2014)