THREE POEMS BY JAY HOPLER
In the Garden
And the sky!
Nooned with the steadfast blue enthusiasm
Of an empty nursery.
Crooked lizards grassed in yellow shade.
The grass was lizarding,
Green and on a rampage.
Shade tenacious in the crook of a bent stem.
Noon. This noon –
Skyed, blue and full of hum, full of bloom.
The grass was lizarding.
Approaching the Tower
Light! Light! Light!
The stars tonight are like tinfoil fleas
On a black rat.
I’m here.
Not far from the train yards.
Not far from the river.
My eyes no less blue than they ever were.
Look in my mirror, Mother.
Tell me if my good
Heart isn’t bad luck.
Tonight, I’m no more resigned to light
Than some canary,
Its eyes pried open with pins.
How come more children
Don’t mistake the river for a schoolyard,
Dark as it is?
Nothing moving but the trains.
And the trees, so quiet.
Like towers.
Waiting for their snipers to arrive.
Green Squall
for Kimberly Johnson
Lightning–
Now there’s a sexy machete: a pounce of sky electric–
electricitied–inflamed.
What’s the sugar, Hurricane?
The rain tins its romantic in the water pots.
The waterspouts are full-on
Rashmahanic.
What’s the hurry, Sugarcane?
A pouncing sky enlightninged,
Edgy-sexed. . . .
This is the sugar.
This is the hurry.
*all from Green Squall,2006, Yale University Press
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