National Poetry Day

Palm Sunday, Coney Island

clouds hang in lazy accent
of a clear blue sky
in this land dominated by
memory, ghosts, skeletons

presiding, ex-officio,
the parachute jump
silently observes the steady inaugural turn
of the wonder wheel
and the first clattering mobius orbit
of the cyclone

who can doubt spring?
in another beach kingdom,
south of this place
mustachioed men swing wooden bats
at leather balls
squinting at the same sun
as heats Brooklyn's mechanical heart
toward summer

Jennifer Zogott
March 19, 1989

Happy National Poetry Day