no nocturnal grammar

no greens no grays

 

no black flag

no white light

 

no accelerated vista

no sudden inscape

 

no aphoristic flower

no plagiarized grief

 

no paper planet

in poet’s notebook

 

no symphonic sunrise

no tremor in the afterglow

 

 

 

 

/

 

no strophic slaughter to the lamb

no grass-fed rhyme-scheme

 

no political shelter

no people of tomorrow

 

no trespass

if no property

 

no gatekeeper

if no boundaries

 

no lovemaking

no leave-taking

 

no center

no circumference

 

 

 

 

/

 

no democratic plantation

in distant counterpoint

 

no counterfeit style

no dialectic grace

 

no pot

no piss

 

no chicken

no omelette

 

no song

no one to listen as it plays

 

*

 

Adam Fagin’s poems have appeared in Boston Review, Fence, VOLT, and a number of other places. He has a chapbook out from Little Red Leaves called T’s Alphabet. Another chapbook, THE SKY IS A HOWLING WILDERNESS BUT IT CAN’T HOWL WITH HEAVEN, will be out soon from Called Back Books.