Gerald Locklin

Arthur Clifton Goodwin: Public Garden, Boston, Circa 1902

Look at the hatted woman
Near the little lake: I wonder if
It was more fun
Undressing women in those days,

Or did their husbands
Tire of the task
And visit brothels?

Flags, monuments, a spire,
A bell-tower, public park:
I guess that’s Boston
In a nutshell
(Or a nuthouse).

Pastels give auburn autumn
To the diagonal winds,
The diurnal rituals.

We did not discover
The East Indies—we
Invented them . . . and just
In the nick of rhyme.

Gerald Locklin
Re)verb Issue 5


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