Paul Blackburn

Tanks

Houses three stories high
or block homes of apartments
         both with steep Norman roofs

The fish swims in the river
and shares it with other fish
                 The cabbages have a garden
                 to share with the lettuce and radishes,
                                             the tomatoes

The cow has a small pasture
and grazes it by herself

                                             An old man lies on a  
sack on
                                             a hillside in the sun
                                             after lunch .
                                             watches the train whip by

The dead lie in the cemetery near the tracks
share earth with the other dead
and do not look at anything

A barge on the river barges past, the wash flying
The fish swim in the river
                 They share it with the barge,
                         the fishermen .

--Paul Blackburn

fr. The Journals (ed. Robert Kelly)
[Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1977]

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