.
Passers-by in wind, Karl-Marx-Allee, Berlin: photo by Ralph Hirschberger, 1990 (Deutsches Bundesarchiv)
The flapping of the branches left the cloud map in tatters
like that scarecrow the soul, after the wind
has taken a bite out of it, insatiable
in its attendance upon the crystal-
pointed mind message, invisibly existing
everywhere.
Confusions of the tangled bed again, unsorted.
Mute celebration of a crooked number
by the old and weak in head; memory
books, portents, faint night table
wakefulness, flutter of wings and tongues in the dark
penumbral poetry of the poor and the dead,
choruses of ancestors in the blood
crying out silent mystery into empty
aisles in an immense theatre, dwindled dark stage,
life of city going on outside extrapolated
from unceasing traffic in wind and rain beginning
day beyond.
like that scarecrow the soul, after the wind
has taken a bite out of it, insatiable
in its attendance upon the crystal-
pointed mind message, invisibly existing
everywhere.
Confusions of the tangled bed again, unsorted.
Mute celebration of a crooked number
by the old and weak in head; memory
books, portents, faint night table
wakefulness, flutter of wings and tongues in the dark
penumbral poetry of the poor and the dead,
choruses of ancestors in the blood
crying out silent mystery into empty
aisles in an immense theatre, dwindled dark stage,
life of city going on outside extrapolated
from unceasing traffic in wind and rain beginning
day beyond.
Turbulent gust front clouds, Norman, Oklahoma: photo by NOAA, July, 1973 (OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory)