Michael S. Collins – Ⅲ
Jump Cuts Around the City of Job
Yes, time is crowded.
Our stories wash
Over each other
Just as waves do:
–“Is it true
he’s in prison for strangling his wife?”
–“But Kenny never laid a hand
on me in his life,
doesn’t believe in hitting women.”
–“He drove that jeep for better or worse
right through the minefield,
and like the pauper in the bourse,
he didn’t buy shit, not a fleshwound
and not the farm, no way.”
–“So—we’re the world’s policemen? Why not?
These guys are good at killing office workers.
Let’s see if they can rise from the dead or not.”
–But as for the afterlife, illogical.
Physical law is all that really lasts.
Look for God in the regularities
That hitch the sun to the plants,
To the planet feeding on its light.”
–“And yet it’s odd that beauty and war echo
each other so: belle, bella, bellum:
Helen knew it.”
–“But God’s voice from a fire?
God then is nothing but superheated
Longing.”
–“And do you need more proof?
Look around. That office tower,
That baseball billboard,
The hooker walking up to that
S.U.V. Longing made everything you see.”
Horns of the traffic jam drown out
Her “$10 for a blowjob,
25 for pussy.” But the deal
gets done, and the traffic
rolls on into the city of Job.
Yes, time is crowded.
Our stories wash
Over each other
Just as waves do:
–“Is it true
he’s in prison for strangling his wife?”
–“But Kenny never laid a hand
on me in his life,
doesn’t believe in hitting women.”
–“He drove that jeep for better or worse
right through the minefield,
and like the pauper in the bourse,
he didn’t buy shit, not a fleshwound
and not the farm, no way.”
–“So—we’re the world’s policemen? Why not?
These guys are good at killing office workers.
Let’s see if they can rise from the dead or not.”
–But as for the afterlife, illogical.
Physical law is all that really lasts.
Look for God in the regularities
That hitch the sun to the plants,
To the planet feeding on its light.”
–“And yet it’s odd that beauty and war echo
each other so: belle, bella, bellum:
Helen knew it.”
–“But God’s voice from a fire?
God then is nothing but superheated
Longing.”
–“And do you need more proof?
Look around. That office tower,
That baseball billboard,
The hooker walking up to that
S.U.V. Longing made everything you see.”
Horns of the traffic jam drown out
Her “$10 for a blowjob,
25 for pussy.” But the deal
gets done, and the traffic
rolls on into the city of Job.