In Any Setting the Sun Can Be Eclipsed

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

He had to think how men might measure, scan

And fix the meaning of blue beauty, blue

Or mauve.  In Tokyo a geisha’s fan

May measure width of peony and true

Perfection.  In the week that Marilyn

Was killed, a teenage boy first saw a rose

More large than any dinner plate.  The sin

Of beauty’s death impaled him, stunned and froze

Him so that rose could not be lovely.  Mist

In Oregon (its coast) could not enshrine

The blossom as if Christ exists.  Since kissed

By fog, the perfect blossom could not shine.

  The brevity of beauty smacked inside

    His marrow like a murdered black-frocked bride.