windows looking round...
... Mabel pulls you in the gate and shakes you
and tells you not to tell your mama...
And you wonder
if God has spoiled Jimmie.

III

MAMA

Mama's face
is smooth and pale as tea-rose leaves.
That ivory oval of aunt Gem
you sucked the miniature off
had black black hair like mama.

: :

Pit-it-ty-pat,
Mama walks so fast,
street lamps jig
without bending a leg...
lights in the windows
play twinkling tunes
on crimson and blue
bottles like bubbles
big as balloons...
Faster and faster...
and pink light spurts
over cakes doing polkas