sat23jan99
		(the boston fern)
		-----------------------------------------------------------

		the boston fern my parents host for me
		explodes a hendrix afro none to my credit.

		over 12 years ago it had been given to me by e.
		now it hangs in our cincinnati living room by the tv,
		a lantern from a train which no longer stops on our line

		just the same the fern's illuminating in see-through green
		the espn basketball or the beautiful laurie dhule on cnn
		norwegian-american -- struck to the quick
		i fantasize aloud -- what face what neck

		the fern is the main memento of e.
		other than the engagement ring come back
		naked in a two-fold of a letter
 
		a hard-luck stone serving a long term
		at the maximum security facility
		only occasionally visited by sis and mom
		prisoner of conscience and crossroads

		the fern is ours.
		the ring is mine to give.

		outside the rain fifties and the nightly ohio breezes
		inside the tv is slated to channel our martina hingis.

		the fern's mane is a silent amish witness to the espn two
		mopping up some basketball important to someone somewhere.
		they are running late enough for the parents to quibble over
		the channels -- like it would be me to watch rhode island.

		such stoic comic tragic retrogrades -- all these twisted
		on themselves all these connived lovings.
		such tangled roots and shoots such tangled roots and shoots.

		drench it.  you know -- more water from under the bridge
		you know -- the one that burned.


			23 January 1999
			Marek Lugowski
			Cincinnati, Ohio