Fancy Woman

by Jack D. Harvey (January 2025)

Fancy Woman
–
Naked, the hatcheck girl
brings us
beyond haberdashery
to new coatrooms
of delight.
Against the boom boom
of thunder we
see the catacombs
of ancient sin
brought to perfection.
–
Theodora, you whore;
even the geese were
overpaid, pecking the
grain off your privates,
while generals watched.
–
That day the Hippodrome
was quiet:
the pantomime mocked
the glorious noisy chariots,
the noisy birds in cages.
–
Theodora, rant and rave:
your singing voice
nothing but your
stupid skin
shown off in broad daylight.
–
But the nightingale
is not much
on daylight;
the darker, the better
he sings.

Ann
–
Come to me, Ann,
put on your old brown shoes
button up your coat
close up the house
and come to me, Ann.
–
Suns can rise and set
Catullus said;
that same old wonderful line
comes back
one way or another,
time after time;
we know it to
be true and don’t care,
don’t pay it no mind,
share and share alike
that wretched wisdom.
–
The weather changes,
the king dies, the tyrant deposed,
revolution, fire, burning,
the comings and goings,
but we don’t care,
not for a moment, not nohow,
for now is our only island,
our rock, our well of hope.
–
Come to me, Ann;
you may as well
leave it all behind,
let it all go and
take your chance;
we can love, can lose,
will lose it all
to the brigand time,
lose it all in the end,
our lives, too,
but for now
take my hand, my heart;
forget the final pitiful loss
of everything and let us
kiss the sacred crown
of flowering May,
make our vows,
and be here now.

But From That Nest
–
Was there a kangaroo
hopped and hopped
on the desert
tail down,
brown top-fur
burnt tan
under the sun
with his leg tendons
tensing
like ribs on a fan?
Was there the tiniest yellow
swallow swinging and dipping in
gables and winter far off,
far off to the north?
Did he nest, did he sit on
his own ancient crocket?
–
Were there men
building and breaking,
creaking and stamping?
Cities spread out
on slick black roads,
streaming metal
over innocent meadows;
concrete flows like manna,
sets up skyscrapers
transcending
desert nights and tunnels
deep as mines.
–
Hopping, flying,
kangaroo and swallow,
refugees from the pride
in human eyes,
sorrowful grasshoppers
in the barns of Jacob,
try and try
on shaky ground,
in murky skies,
to find the space
in these black days,
the place and time
where no one can get them.

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