Keys

December's great poems
leak from damaged
railroad bridges--
finished 1912
abandoned 1935
after swirling winds
hurricane winds of
labor day--
south of mainland
USA off mangrove
islands of florida's
keys,

sun is skipping
boil of fire sinking
far away over gulf
scalded red flicker
of pain in distant pink
sky,

December's sunsets
at southern most point
slap like blue-green
maybe sea-green
clarity slashed
with brown sand, waves
on the shore, fallen
so you miss
and the lights out,
early,

December at the
bottom of America
no more land
mile 0
gray pavement
used up and
skips its way
to end on backs
of martyred men,
slouching.