Shelley has practical hands

Shelley has practical hands
made strong in the milking-shed
and they find out tension
then make it utter

its own tones of release
So touching
she doesn’t like to be touched
and needs to stay in charge

The others’ names are gone now
and she with her navel pierced
remains gently to remind
about the quietly raging storm-waters

Dusk has arrived on Main Street
but with it comes the light
that what I felt was false
and buildings need repair

Grant Duncan 9/10/04

Conductress

Train the mind
at Rosenheim 11.30 am

with a clear morning sky
held by power cables

The sighting of dark mountains
comes as a surprise

like the sudden idea
that pleasure is permissible

money expendable
and the conductress too

though severely uniformed
in two-tone blue

likes to play with the softer places
So think harder and yet calmly

about your sins and about the door with
Do not enter on it

To be a first-class man
depends on her approval

and the whole train of thought
moves off between green banks

due only to her whistle
She draws on my thoughts

and tries them out
like shawls from an old hope box

Grant Duncan Bavaria, 26.06.04