A DAY OF PARABLES
(For Denise Levertov in memory)

We pass at a noon hour
hearing birdsong
near Cambridge bookstalls
and remember the water music
from the Esplanade tables
along the Charles River
by Weeping Willows
wanting some chowder
where we poets
read on the Common
at the peace march
which gets louder
as we read our parables
near the Mayflower pulpit.