This is not a document of barbarism, we said

                                                            but the weather was fine

and the girls/women were in swimsuit ads

                                                        or at least we thought

they were, but from our position on the dirty

                                                        parterre, really all

that could be seen were the fibrous wires

                                                        holding everything together.
Those fibrous wires, they said, are surely but

                                                        chainlinks in a larger

fence, but the goods, tainted as they were, couldn’t be

                                                        sold, so we didn’t reply.

A new start, really, was all we were looking for

                                                        and our study of homiletics

definitely contributed to that, though the inbreaking

                                                        remained unbroken.
So what, you might say, as they did, there’s nothing

                                                        new under the sun,

which, anyway, was gone from its hegemonic position.

                                                        Meanwhile, on the parterre,

the tulips were thoroughly roasted. Odoriferous, we

                                                        laughed and held our noses.

Everything vegetates, this is known. The cycle of nature,

     we said, remains unbroken.