the romantic turn of mind

1
what are you,
me, that guy
over there with the paper bag
under his arm walking in the twilight
in the park

or the biking man panting into his phone
ok i'll see you in a little bit
he snaps it closed

2
on the hill
by the creek looking down
upon a single wordsworth tree

the romantic turn of mind
and the significance
it will assign

why do the bugs
always get
so bad out here?

3
if we can't be silent
Jesus like
we speak like Pilate
half in interrogatives

these questions
like stones
like scrollwork on these pale stones

4
in new york london paris prague
scrollwork upon this high facade

the words that came will come again
scrollwork upon this stone facade
half-ruined
how ancient structures speak of death
how these old buildings long for death
don't look up there

all of us pressed against the crushed stone
streets
our lives
the teeming of their beauty
in their passing by
hosanna

in the highest
palm branch clouds

sing loud