Hooray For Captain Spaulding!

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542

There, the fine nothingness,
it winds through my days
my life a peepshow on a reef
a thing mistaken for feeling
and down, down below, piano music
do you hear?
paid for by memory
with forfeited ears
hauled in from the corner of somewhere
it knows where I can be found
my purse allowing all hands
in hiding while unraveling the attachments
to have this relic and
not know what it is for
after all, we are all
in this together.


543

within this gentle sleep
our dreams, a riddle;
these lies of blessings these sins
permitted within the boundaries of the state of night
delighted we apologize to our liars
our debt paid down
as morning approaches
as we translate with a short hand
as we chatter out our time
unaware of our troubled sight.


(*At last we are to meet him,
The famous Captain Spaulding.
From climates hot and scalding,
The Captain has arrived.)
"Animal Crackers" 1936