You tell me the day is not now

and I try to enliven my cough

to make sure I’m alive.

That’s how noise is,

and how a hundred violins

playing in unison

can elicit applause.

I know how birds fly

and trees seem to revive

to help define the new season

just as you slip into a woolen sweater

declaring the cold is something

anyone can feel.

Believe me, the antelopes

have no nation

and empires decline to a midden

while justice is better than anything

anyone has ever tried.

—Jack Lindeman