“John Allen Smith, 35, of Tampa, found in the rear of the Kipling Arms apartments, Clearwater Key, Saturday morning, with a bullet hole through his heart.”
–The Evening Independent, June 28, 1926
Another friend of yours got uppity & leapt.
He (downward, done with breasts) removed his bifocals
carefully, the water swept
same as then (the moon hung around)
then through cracks in the fallen pair.
Done peering.
Under othersong & chlorpromazine
(—My pops’ more presentational than your pops)
he hatched inside the inside of your drinking.
But say Hands unwound that coiling fate,
replaced you both in a kitchenette
with fresh glasses, stools,
would you chirp of Pittsburgh or something
clean: the invention of certainties, the lean
hard shifts uncaught,
the taken rhythms taking off?
—H: Trick’s not to remain
calm but remain. (Tampa is smooth.)
