GELSEY BELL
Poetry—'David'
      

(in memoriam D.B.)
4th June 2009

in the distinct
vocal line
of a question
& a joke
elided
a sound like sun bleached
tongue red petals
& the yellow ash grasses
of california hills

margaret & i
trambolined the furniture
in song
while david
introduced wit
i only slowly understood

counteracting our
ethel merman doris day liza minelli
give give give force & form & fosse arms
w/
a sentence
whose words i have lost
but whose contour echoes
like the memory of gold
sweeping in
& out
of a line of sun