Herkimer Diamonds - November 29, 2022 at Open Mic Surgery
Channel: Poetry for Cowards
Date: 20/12/2022

Herkimer Diamonds 
(for Oliver) 

I’m going to saddle-stitch 
the book that holds your drawings 
with a twine that was spun 
out of a dream I had 
where we were in a Denny’s 
and the carpet held crumbs; 
rubble from the wall of Jericho - 
the stone and mortar 
I assembled 
to keep my love from overwhelming you; 

the passage from the booth to the bathroom, 
lined with quarter vending machines; 
stickers from an old cartoon 
that was on a channel which no longer airs; 
the deep mystery of how ephemeral it is to create - 
the work put in to make a cartoon so popular, 
that the stickers in plastic eggs 
still linger in a dim ceramic-floored path 
to a men’s room in a Denny’s in upstate New York. 

Who builds a wall  
of such magnitude, 
except to lure and seduce  
the trumpets to play? 

The carpet in my dream gives me a sprig 
and I will wake with it in my hand 
and make a binding of your book of drawings 
that impress me every time 
I peek into your yellow room, 
and you’re cross-legged on the bed, 
matter-of-factly making miracles manifest 
with the ease of your pencil lines 
and exquisite knack 
for color. 

(July 20, 2020 4:40am)