The grapefruit in the Florida orchard
has ripened into a globe in Hartford
for him to look at, not to eat.
If he had a tin can he would beat
it as a drummer in a band beats
his drum and steadily with a swish
and sometimes a gong. It’s his wish
to escape from gray walls and sky
into a Denmark of the inner eye
or a bullring south of the border
or a sky espied from the trenches
of a battlefield in Flanders. Wenches
wander into his wonderland. Order
is disorder squared. We are nowhere
else but here, yet live we do in metaphor
like that elegant square-shouldered matador.

I’m writing 
a love poem 
even with 
an American 
boot to 
my throat. 

I lick the croony 
sole and picture 
you in a fresh white 
wife pleaser. 

You got 
two fingers 
dripping money 
down my mouth. 

Our razor 
can do 
so much.