H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

CARMEN BUGAN

Note to a suicide

Neruda saw happiness at the rim of a wineglass, love

In bullet-laced violins (but I am paraphrasing)

Oh, his women are still bread doubling up at breasts

To be loved by one who would never end up sliced on tracks!

See Venice in the winter-flooding, when the sea licks

Pink marble steps, white chairs swimming in their chains

Outside the restaurant where a song burning in the chest

Of the piano makes you forget your feet soaked in the Adriatic!

And here in your Oxford, the daffodils didn’t care about you:

Volcanically they spilled over grass and crocuses,

Swans fight with the geese over their bit of the pond

Drawing a clock on the face of the water, past the vernal equinox

I am sorry you have become only the devastating noise of that day.

There is nothing between you and me other than the cross

Between your death and my continuing life: the tracks were washed

I gave my statement to the Police, I did my stranger’s duty.