after helicopters

after helicopters
yellow police tape festoons
my urban streetscape

write ten times

write ten times
what is language

language has subject and verb

language proceeds from the mouth
of the great Zambezi river

language was formed in the mouths
of the great gods
bom bom mahadeva

language counts sheaves of barley
and barrels of beer

language touches my soul and her soul
with music and forms babies
in the great womb of time

language corrupts the hearts of men

language tortures the weary

language sells and buys the bodies of women
in the marketplace of longing

language makes deals with millions of dreary objects
so the youth die from language of secret police
and perverse bombs that jaded professors manufacture
in the sophisticated universities

language makes the crops grow and the rains come
and the bird sing at merry times
it cheers the dead fingers of destiny

language is infinitely recursive in the machines of hell

leaves gone

leaves gone lighted windows
come out like stars
night comes down
cold gusts whip the boughs
my neighbors' windows twinkle
friendly asterisms light years
across the dark street