Persia Burning

I kill time at ACME SMASH REPAIRS,

wait for the beaten out, re-ducoed job,

walk the pavement alongside

six lanes of traffic sliding past.



- Display window baited with PERSIAN CARPETS,

Oh, but isn't it beautiful - a woman caught

and caressing a carpet; salesman eloquent -

A reproduction, madam, of a miniature.



Kills time too. Leopards pace under

flowering trees where long tailed birds

call their tereu, tereu, jug-jug.

Deer graze among rocks. Quail run



hiding in grasses or wide open flowers.

Here time withstands the re-curved bow,

damascened blade, plough's tooth,

slitting, stripping clean away,



leaving a clean picked carcass to Shahs

and Standard Oil. And I walk out

into acrid air of exhausts: Persia burning.

Time for the hammered out, re-ducoed job.