Advice: A Book of Poems

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">VAUDEVILLE MOMENT</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">They have carved a battle</div> <div class="verse">Across your hard face:</div> <div class="verse">Transfigured conflict,</div> <div class="verse">Lines like suspended lances.</div> <div class="verse">Your voice must be the uneven</div> <div class="verse">Clink of the last carver&#8217;s chisel.</div> <div class="verse">Your soul must be a pious subterfuge</div> <div class="verse">Squinting its admiring eyes</div> <div class="verse">At the lifeless battle lining your face....</div> <div class="verse">Middle aged vaudeville conductor,</div> <div class="verse">With a hunted leanness on your body,</div> <div class="verse">Sometimes the swing of your baton</div> <div class="verse">Sways with a brooding patience</div> <div class="verse">That violates your ended face.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Two acrobats appear,</div> <div class="verse">With their automaton bows.</div> <div class="verse">Their unlit motion does not strike</div> <div class="verse">The air into a hugging flame.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">They are blue and orange corpses</div> <div class="verse">Whirled in a sacrilegious festival.</div> <div class="verse">They vividly resemble</div> <div class="verse">The chiseled battle that grips</div> <div class="verse">This lean conductor&#8217;s face:</div> <div class="verse">Motion without life,</div> <div class="verse">And life that holds no motion!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />