Imitating William’s Commitment to the Passing Moment

For Elu

Entering with my mind
on nothing in the place

but the moon
I remember him by

rise over the Exxon     —
I heard

a malnourished he who
snickered near the urinal

at the smartphone held out–
a nude, maybe not,

who was gushing and
leaning backwards to sit down

onto the man’s half
erect cock

while the cashier of five years was
fanning the pages of

the new cosmo
at the newsstand–

The supreme importance
of this nameless spectacle

sped by me
without a word–

Who cares where I went?
for I left thinking that the

saffron moonrise
over the car dealership

reminds me my first cat
died with one eye spilling pavement

This was a painstaking and emotionally invested imitation of William’s later-titled “The Right of Way”. You’ll find it titled XI in the “Spring and All” manuscript on page 47. I have to publish this now, as it’s long past 8, but perhaps I will get around to detailing my moves, and including some earlier drafts. The moves in his poem are beautiful and very difficult to imitate, but kept me in a really nice daydream–“trout-foolish” as Richard Hugo calls it. For now, I’ll let the poem breathe a bit, eh?

The Right of Way

In passing with my mind
on nothing in the world

but the right of way
I enjoy on the road by

virtue of the law      —
I saw

an elderly man who
smiled and looked away

to the north past a house —
a woman in blue

who was laughing and
leaning forward to look up

into the man’s half
averted face

and a boy of eight who was
looking at the middle of

the man’s belly
at a watchchain —

The supreme importance
of this nameless spectacle

sped me by them
without a word —

Why bother where I went?
for I went spinning on  the

four wheels of my car
along the wet road until

I saw a girl with one leg
over the rail of a balcony