Landscape with Warhol & the Coming of Spring 2003

American Poetry Review, The, Jul/Aug 2004 by Revell, Donald

Andy's war. Even as the bluejays move in Alabama,

In Baghdad

The camera sees a minaret unmoved,

Hour after hour, and morning star awakening

Dinning birds into the green transmission,

The live feed.

Reading Ovid today on Ovid's birthday, I stopped

At ltys

Hacked to pieces by his mother and poor Philomela,

Cooked and served up hot to the king his father,

And then everybody became a different kind of bird,

It seems, forever.

The minaret has not moved, and now the morning star is changed

To evening star.

In Alabama this year, the vernal equinox

Occurs in the evening. Ovid's birthday winds down.

Darkness all over the planet is a perfect match

For daylight.

Close to midnight, I'm still awake, reading Ovid again,

Watching Andy's war

Out of the corner of my eye. In Baghdad

The morning is a desert pastel with no wind,

And birds are singing even as the bluejays sleep, I guess,

Around my house.