Difficult to See Intimations of Immortality
We ride past, jostling on the bus, and can’t
Make out the wording on the plaque; so close,
And yet importance can be missed. We pant
To make connection and to get a dose
Of greatness or at least of meaning. Paul
Reached out for these. The reach exceeded grasp.
His greenish drug turned poetry to drawl.
He tried a fleshy drug but couldn’t clasp
The boy enduringly. He tried a wife
And child. He tried to hold some other boys.
He tried the Christ and crucifix, the life
Of rosaries and little prayerish noise.
..Rimbaud tried newness, Paul repetition,
….Including a smaze of superstition.