FOR THE POLTERGEIS?
If I were a polar-bear I could amuse myself on an iceberg, If I were a rattlesnake I could live with the owl and the dog, If I were a sloth I could suspend myself and slumber, If I were an elephant I could ruminate and remember.
If I were a dragon I could rejoice in my blood's recuperative violence, If I were a phoenix I could transfix the present with permanence, If I were a sphinx I could sit in the desert and defy analysis, If I were a dodo I might be glad. to be bones and past all this.
If I were a statue I wouldn't be troubling the air's patience, If I were music I would trouble it to some purpose, If I were a portrait I could outstare my original, If I were poetry I could make reality real.
The extinct creature leaves its bones to the museum.
The rose comes out, and retreats again into its dream.
Art changes intention, changes itself, and things.
Over all the invisible phoenix lifts impossible wings.
DAVID PAUL.
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