poem for CTR

For CTR

I.

I saw some green

on the beginning of earth hour

Hospice of light in the city's

diminished garden.

A jumble, a ruse, of impossible

Avenues

by lateral means.

Up and down no longer viable but true.

I saw some green--

smoke on the mountain rising

as we looked to the sky.

Then,

there was nothing.

II.

Let me tell you of other ports;

Hunger's ruined feast

at the portal of entries

this city glimmering against her black

planetarium.

Guardians at the gate

Lead us into the nameless.

III.

Birds chatter amid cow plops of wet snow.

Cemetery of kisses*

falling in dissolution

reigning over

hard periphery of angled thoughts

condensed into conversation

for some green song I saw

while still a fire in your tombs.*

Twenty years later, still alive.

*italics from Pablo Neruda

Jacqueline Gens Brattleboro, Vermont April, 2007