MARVELL AND SHENSTONE / SHENSTONE AND MARVELL

 

Mosque-like domes, water towers,

spires, turrets, masts, steeples,

gambrels, mansards; big piles

of gravel by the tan gravel-crushing

structure; whitened corn cobs

strewn on the grass among

the bent cigarette butts; Andrew

Marvell, the Tree of Ideas

is glistening, the branches

are spectral, and the leaves,

even in this wind, are myriad.

The materials at your disposal,

William Shenstone, are elemental

and refractory. The apples, cool

and round, are wooden apples,

glass apples, metal apples;

wine is kept in one, and in the others

salt, nutmeg, rosewater, ink,

and an unidentified elixir. Andrew Marvell,

William Shenstone, the breeze

blows cool and strong. The sunset…

the sunset is peach-colored;

and it is…deepening.

The mystery is deepening

as it grows closer to you.