Matthew Zapruder

All day I waited

there was law and there was order
there was craft

no spirits entered

old as a dictionary
that never stops
talking I talked

I said
              once bliss actually wrote me

now evening
wears the radiant
humbling evening
regalia

I watch it watch
             me fail
to graduate
with a degree
in filling

the blue notebook
full of clouds

maybe the Chinese poets
can help me

but the book
is way over there

the gold book with all the secrets

I want
in the morning to go
on the wildflower walk

and listen
to the naturalist
drone on
like a human bee

but I so briefly
fall into
the middle
of the dream

the one that could save me

I think I was writing
             on a tree

I felt it cared

I knew what we must do

despite all training
             it all dissolved

now it's morning
only a little coffee

to cheer the shadow
pioneer who must

cross another
valley for no reason

except to lie
down in the flowers