coffee mends

coffee mends
     the holes in morning's curtains

coffee saves
     your eyes at nod of night

death
     where is the coffee you promised me?

from Thebes (1991)

Thebes

now that he's quieted they say he's blind
his mind blurred     their quarrel
having closed itself behind him swallowed him
and satisfied emitted him mostly undigested
plagued and poxed and they say pitted of eye
with walking stick half off on the road to thebes

too much acid?     yeh     must a been
he's sure burnt now but i don't remember him
any other way     the boy's brain is gone
and if you remember him as seer
don't mention it to us     war?
what war?     have another drink we're trying to forget

all his followers they say have changed themselves back now
painted back the numbers on the houses
of the city he once redesigned
cut their locks     locked their doors
and as in distance heat and plague approach
they close their eyes and go about their mothers' chores

From Thebes (1991)