Barbara Guest

Nostalgia of the Infinite
                              after Georgio de Chirico, 1913

    Hands are touching.
    You began in cement in small spaces.
    You began the departure. Leaves restrain you. You attempted the departure.
    A smile in sunshine, nostalgia.
    Beneath shadow of shadows of Columbus the Navigator. Waving farewell.
    Street, shadows.

I have lost my detachment, sparrow with silver teeth.
I have lost the doves of Milan, floating politely.

                                                     Recognize me, I shall be here, O Nietzsche.

                                                    We have skipped down three pairs of stairs,
they are not numbered, but they are oddly assorted, velvet.

                                                     Recognize me in sunshine,
assorted bulletins permit us to be freer than in Rome.
This land of castles perched on a cliff.
Filled with pears and magic.

                                                     I am not detached,
bulletins permit us comb, fish of silver.
A part of the tower
(aet, 1913) beckons to us.