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“The Square at Dawn” by James Tate 🇺🇸 (8 Dec 1943 – 8 Jul 2015)
Unconsumable material is everywhere;
red machinery washes out the gutter.
And the grim musicians
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are seen stalking themselves with rare
cacti in their saxophones.
Mosquitoes linger in the air
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like snowy egrets.
What has happened to the rush of night?
It is as white as an arctic wolf.
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A little buoyant coffin drifts
across the square; larvae configure
on the last gasp of a lamp,
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frying like the ink
of an old elaborate alphabet.
Such original works as feathers
​
announce the angel of death
is selling kisses in the alley.
An early yellow bus of women
​
takes photographs of the man
who devours nails, as the heirloom
quilt unravels behind the green
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unlatched door of our town idiot.
The rent is up and the cat
is dead: we ought to go home.