Wrong Double Sonnet of the Coup d'Etat

for joaquin The black and white teat mouse

is grooming his mustache

in the far orient of the coal closet.

There's paraffin and gasoline

dancing high in the trees.

Ash, small birds, and snow

falling across the luster of limousines.

Inside on the tables

there are tiger lilies in azure pots

and a manic white glove

telegraphing from the darkness.

The voice of the wind

delivering the propaganda of a winter's evening

while pronouncing,

"Yellow thumbprints

on the ballots please."

The poor who are not sick

have dragged themselves

and their children

to the strung colored lights of the plaza.

The geese flying overhead

will eliminate them with trebles

of feeling, honks

and more coughing disdain: what of

the men in their -high chairs

adjusting white bonnets

and bibs. Later, they will measure our fear

while testing the balcony's railing.

NORMAN DUBIE is the author of Mercy Seat: New and Collected Poems (2001, Copper Canyon Press).

Copyright World Poetry, Incorporated May/Jun 2001
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