hellenes
some say better among extinction all
sly Hellenes
the point of ambush being
to gain some political advantage
some critical advantage
the point of ambush being
beyond the thin calling fillets of rye
down past the rushes
up ford the shallow brook
where the chevy magpie and the stringy willow
embrace an earthy dampen patch
a way the knoll
and in the hidden palace framed of curving hazel
there just by
the grasses and the sedge are crushed
like the nest of ambush
when the flute sends its pallid theme upon the airs
and its vibration sits remembering
the way that atoma are arranged
then remember the way they too
were arranged around their convivial contriving
like quavers singing to a flowering clef
the axioms of tune and how they enjoy each merry dance
and jig off into the countryside
where among the palisades of cherry ripe
and hazel coppiceades
they loose all reason to ambush
when one has paris in ones eyes
filled to the focus
when one has above the tangential fear of discovery
strung like cirrus the dog cloud
and below the phyrric hell
of the physicality of the old men of memnon
whose house like halitosis
would fill young souls
with corruption
like the beggars on small town corners
rank with sores
like a stinking pond
attracts the necessity of ducks
like mozart and his too many lyric tunes
and his too many unsystematic choppy notes
like copernicus and his schematic reasoning
these are crimes against the strictures of order
which despite our trivialised notions of a free world
are not without their logic and their force
within the crystal globe of reason
so that when the louche or unreasoned is
set balanced against reason
then both make a stronger team than singly
some might say
but when the sharp cut of distance
draws its blue veil over propriety
and love shakes its shackles
none can bind the lover to the ground
for in the free world of hearts
no landscape is stronger played
no tune is more subtle
no song can be more fickle and enduring
more foolish or more daring