4:30 A.M. Imaginings

That I was on a small ship…rocking wrong and making me sick.

That I had been shot in the stomach by an invisible bullet

that left no obvious wound but it hurt like hell.

That there are people…more than a dozen, standing in the street

talking about brown shoes and argyle socks.

That several hundred small stupid birds were lining up in the sky

waiting to arrive at my window

to sing out of tune at the top of their lungs.

That I had actually slept with Claire Du Bac when I had

the chance more than forty years ago.

That one of my legs is secretly shorter than the other

and little by little I have walked my life in a great

circle.

That I had a dog named Tippy who could talk to me.

That it rained so hard one day that whole parts of me

were washed away like sins in the River Jordan

and I woke up a much thinner person

though not narrow in any way.

That the obnoxious sound of telephones ringing rises into

the stratosphere and collects there like shards of

black ice.

That my left hand went to sleep and dreamed.

That I suddenly looked good in hats.

That I had been a soldier in several previous lives

to no particular avail.

That I was able to stand on my head without using my hands.

That politicians of all sorts gather in church basements every where

and talk about nothing important, wearing faces

from a birthday party for bad news.

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