What William felt for a yellow-haired girl, I felt till I heard

the furniture fall

during gravity's return

when the planets settled

and silence translated

to siren

Maud knew only ill love lasts

and the sisters dreamed of unlonely Moscow

even if this repeats it will still be first light,

first thought, the rubble of stones that clack against flood

the gap-between-teeth of sea-through-rocks

Tolstoy knows the cast of the world's show

and Flaubert knows how to walk and catch

a-mind-at-sprint, in word-pour, as his curtain creaks open on day

and what William felt for a yellow-haired girl

was what's felt for a known ghost

and only Maud knew ill love lasts

but is there nothing better

for the brain or ear

than the song? For the brain

or ear, what William felt for a yellow-haired girl, I felt till I heard

the furniture fall

during gravity's return – which made

song – when the planets settled

and silence translated

to siren

so we learned only ill love lasts

and followed, unlovely, to Moscow