in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea journey on the highway across America
i) Atlantic Crossing
tomorrow’s rain huddled
beneath the plane
England a thread unravelling
into the Irish Sea
a man in ‘departures’ made
an Arthur Miller script of goodbye
his wife whispering how it is only a month;
some men in history have slept for longer
ii) ships in the night
I saw Ferlinghetti;
he looked like an eccentric trainer
of big cats
and carried the weight of a small island
in his breath
no sorrow is so bad, Lawrence,
as that which quite goes by
vi) Chicago
this has been:
the sun was the face of the man
in the American Gothic painting
a waitress had a voice like cold coffee
the day sweated
the day wrung itself out and left
itself to dry between the streets
a homeless man played jazz; pigeons scattered
into the iron rafters of the El Train
viii) New York City, stage directions
/squinting eye of the streets
wind moves like an elegant dress/
/down the backs of young men, sweat
makes new peninsulas/
/the half-light of a corner deli
a man running with a bouquet of flowers;
the last hope of the city/
*Andrew McMillan was born in 1988. His debut pamphlet was every salt advance and a second pamphlet is due in October 2011, both from Red Squirrel Press. He is featured in the upcoming Salt Book of Younger Poets
