Diana Vance 

Looking Into the Backyard

It isn’t clear
where the mind begins
and the body ends
somewhere between them
is love and we
its heart
I ride down Cleveland Avenue
not Tate’s Cleveland Avenue
but the one off Route One
and the sun has its name
on each leaf
I cant give up
and wont
do what I could
to hurt you
I would never take a razor
to your face
I would never race after you
down a mountainside
saying
I hate you
I would never cut up your heart
see there are yellow leaves
and it is possible
to love without pain
its as possible
as playing a lute in a courtyard
as Palmolive commercials
as quasars
you have The Meeting of Saint Anthony
in your room
the unicorn
and Picassos Tragedy
the stained glass
in the porticos
of Life Magazine
a tomato sprouting from concrete
Im not all that idealistic
Ive walked over winos
and marriage is middleclass
if there is a union between us
let it be like bread
like hydrogen
fusion
water exploding
let the words make rain
let us dance
to that that seems most natural
hate is middleclass
so is Raskolnikov
rich red wine
a sudden catastrophe
it is true when we die
we bring forth fruit
you like this intensity
I like flowers that have the look
of being looked at
I like grace
the shadows on your face
the pink in the begonia leaf
but there are no complacencies here
the way a periodic function
functions like a wave
to rise and fall through the range
of human emotion
and Buffalo Bill is still defunct
the Pacific still as an ocean
the sun still coming up
I have said nothing new
if poetry is hitchhiking
I see blue cornfields
and sometimes rain
there is so much for the self to do
so much it must do
on its own
Mt. Mckinley at ten thousand feet
I like your feet
the phone rings
Lynard Skynard singing
I hear you
I hear you
you are not satisfied
preoccupied with the spider
weaving filament
after filament
its Howdy Doody Time
the yellow light bulb shines in the window
the sun touches just the top
of the trees
ecstasy
is a waking dream
I had a Norwegian doll house once
Danny slid its furniture off the roof
and broke it
Debbie broke his heart
like the lamp that fell off the car
I cant glue him back together
I want him happy
before I die
Mom and Dad will go quietly
the waves the beach the pier the long unabridge golf course
without much fear
old soldiers don’t fade away
they mow the lawn
but meanwhile
you have a nucleus
of blue lilacs
a wet
tongue
thinking can be happiness
fate is middleclass
olives with pits
lets not fall in love
lets not fall in
and throw knives over our heads
now there are two squirrels
leaves in sunlight
meaning is making orgasm cerebral
deep as the sea
fuck me
and when you take another woman
it will be another woman
you will take
let there be boundaries
to our space
and the place where the mind begins
and the body ends
this swinging bridge
between us
this clothesline between two trees.