Manchester in July or Memere’s Song In The Round

Manchester in July or Memere’s Song In The Round

 

Rushing against a still sunset,

            Along the Bridge d’Notre Dame,

                                    Frère Jacques

A west wind of my own making,

On an otherwise still afternoon.

The sun urges, head-on:

            The coursing Merrimack

            Smacks concrete pilings, 

            Smoothing crags,

            Underfoot: Sediments

Leak from Winnipesaukee,

                        Emptying to the Gulf of Maine.

            Sightlining phantasms

                        From Amoskeag Mills:

                        Master plans, river-bent.

 

Caught by a quick duskshower,

A small-dropped mister.

Long enough to soak,

Dormez-vous

Light enough to cover,

Right enough to wash:

            Northwest to Southeast,

            From Montreal to America,               

            Refilled streams

            Along the way to safe harbors:

Manchester in July:

                        Queen City promises.

            Consorting with present ghosts of:

                        A river half-crossed,

                        Ambling, un-shored-ly.

            

 

Clipping the damp night head-on,

            Capricorn ascendant now,

Moon moving across the horizon,

Responsibility and duty ahead,

Familiar rays-to-beams:

            Bowing relations, 

            Routing Midsummer parades.

            Celebrating pleasantries,

            With Sparklers streaking,

                                    Sonnez les matines

                        Connecting dots,

                        To generations past:

            Recollecting, spirits,

                        Dionne to Youville to Rimmon,

                        Bare granite exposed. 

 

Pressing on to dawn again,

                                    You are my sunshine,

Resting somewhere near Elm,

Disoriented in deja voodooism,

                        My only sunshine.

Unguided, unmapped, signalless,

Hip-deep in the deluge,

            That crack in that sidewalk,

            That porch on that house,

                                    You make me happy when skies are grey

            That hill, that slope, that curve,

                                    You’ll never know, dear,

            Rounded bends refilled,

                        Waters pooling,

                        Puddles emptying,

            ,                       How much I love you.

            Baptized by the Queen,

                        Fresh starting again. 

                                    Please don’t take 

My sunshine away.

                        Ding dang dong.

                        Ding dang dong.