Classic Poem

Madeira,
you have put me
into a null state.
Now I know
what the Eskimo meant
when he said,
" The weather is our master. "

I know, you want me
in a kind of interval,
or heavy water.
Another glass
and I'll be your placebo.

Well, I feel no pain.
I'll rest awhile
in this ancient limbic system.
If I sit here long enough,
I may figure out
the gravitational pull
of words:
viz., " The sea is old
but the earth is older. "

The vine from which you came
was brought from Cyprus
by the Portuguese
to the island of Madeira
where the green canary abounds
and sixhundredninetyfive species of beetles.
The coast is rocky
and the sea unquiet,
hence there are few algae.
The rock is basalt
of volcanic origin,
dark and hard
There are few meadows and pastures.
The cattle feed on the mountains,
and on the lower slopes
are a few towns.

This is said
to reassure
men of facts
dragging an ass.

Good Madeira,
let me lie in your glass
in the mellow quality
of latency.
Do not unlock us.
The cubic light
of a small planet
left its source
at the time of Prospero,
iron-red,
and entered here.


What time is this?
the axis of the earth inclines,
the fish swims to the hook,
the old man plants
a plum tree for his granddaughter

Profound Madeira,
let me get some of this pressure
off my bladder
I'm stoned.
I don't know my backbone
from a tuning fork.
Don't any body
bump my arm
or try to stop me.

Undefinably deep and strange
is this lighted enclave,
this underwater amber,
like the words of a philosopher
with a taste for style:
" There is a mustard seed
in the shape of the earth.
But it doesn't matter. "

In this condition
it is easy to be deceived
The last words
of Beethoven on his death bed,
after four operations,
" Too late! Too late! "
also looked profound
until the reference was traced
to a shipment of his favorite Rhine wine.

Verily, I slobber over.
It wouldn't surprise me
if four mink
dashed across this scene,
pulling an orange crate.
I wouldn't bat an eye.

What's the matter?
Don't we peasants
deserve to be entertained?

I'm not going to budge
from this love seat
until Leah calls.