Decision Trees

Loves are not to be harried
out and hung on decision trees,
romantic manifestos not withstanding.
Neither is truth limbed out there,
hanging like some vast fat apple of odds
to be twisted off and eaten by ungods,
epistemology and metaphysics
dripping down their chins,
and beauty can no more hang there
than hangs the perfect nose.
Odds on art will not play,
but, nevertheless, are played,
stretched out toward the recto side
and even off that page.
Rainbows don't, and willows won't,
but, wait, look at the stars!


(Kaleidoscope, The Sentinel-Record, January 19, 1985)