JFK

      The wasp is still in the columbine's shadow,
      the one black among differing greys; shelved
      by time now, and available only through the abstract haze
      of fathers and mothers talking--- the dour song
5     of the 60s gives them something to raise voices over.
      "If I knew that man's mind, I'd know the country."
      A few well-soldered speeches carry through,
      the New England intonation, a fretted film....
      He has the stiff, sweet elegance of dust,
10    wafting through the White House's castled banquets
      in his thin-waisted tux. Over the open, boiling
      spaghetti pot you stand and sing and talk all morning.
      The waters lash; you speak. Of the dead:
      "We'll own their laundry soon enough."

 

From the collection "Red Bank"

Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]

More information available on gregglory.com.