The quoted phrases are from Robert Frost's "Design" and May Swenson's "The DNA Molecule."
Walking at Lunchtime With an iPod On a Naval Air Station By the Chesapeake
The swans aren't native, either, but I'm cold,
While they swim nonchalantly past the ice
That rings this inlet's shore in manifold
Frail layers piled by waves and running tides.
My playlist's poetry, but overhead
A T-2 Buckeye trainer circles loud
Enough to drown out "like a froth, and dead ..."
Until "the DNA molecule is the nude ..."
And here, beside unswerving coon tracks, lies
A duck encased in ice. I stoop to see
What happened, but I can't. That's no surprise.
I play at death in code and poetry.
And when Stiff-kneed, I stand I and prod it with my shoe
Before returning to the work I do.
Revised 01/23/04
9:27:28 PM