The Parade

On the occasion

of his nomination

an eight hour

parade of

citizens marched

past his house

and there is

a photograph

of him standing

on his front steps

towering over all

in a white suit

with Mary

in the far left

lower window

looking bored

as ladies in wagons

with blossoms

in their hair and

fifty postmen

high-stepping

in their spiffy

blue uniforms

marched along-

side trappers

and farmers

soldiers, whores

and the boom

of a tuba played for

a hundred drunks

singing a hundred

different melodies,

donkeys, spotted

calves, dogs walking

on their hind legs

balanced on red

striped balls,

and everyone

passed by his door

it seemed so that

he understood

America was

stranger larger

than even his

wildest guess

which already

included multitudes

almost infinite

as leaves of grass

on the prairie

all of them waving

ready to be counted

and 1000 was

a boy carrying

a rooster under

each arm and

five thousand

was a man

six foot nine

with a hammer

in his left hand

representing

the Carpenter’s

Guild in New York

cakewalking as if

to the pearly gates

and finally

beyond ten

thousand came

a horse wearing

a rig of wire

and feathers

like a forlorn

Pegasus walking

slowly as if

exhausted, beaten

down by the day

and the nominee

walked into the

street and guided

the poor creature

the rest of the way

through the city

talking quietly of

myth and the myriad

varieties of hay.