Heaven #6

Once upon a time there was
Once upon a time there was a castle by the
   
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Once upon a time there was a castle by the sea & a percolator bubbling on a faded taupe Formica counter
   
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the sand is just so much white sugar
   
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this unheimlich clock, this black-ice breaking
   
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Max whispers sharps, she whispers dry-ice stars
   
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The real world had had its day, it ended in a fit of rain & blackbirds
   
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A patch of witchgrass
   
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A patch of witchgrass gone to seed in the

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A patch of witchgrass gone to seed in the asphalt & the asphalt looks a little bit like a cracked mirror
   
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Max in a black dress in the fractured light
   
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Once upon a time there was
   
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Once upon a time there was a german sanatorium swarming with black tubercular sport coats, a novel swarming with purple finches
   
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free at last from the wages of sin, Max gets into her car
   
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This is the street where we danced last Wednesday—have the streetlights vanished so completely
   
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there’s no sunset there’s only the wet wet heaven

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a last chance to float on wide band radio waves

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Once upon a time there was
   
Jack Hayes
© 2010