IN THE BELLY


In the belly
of names and geometry

Brancusi emerges
unscathed by his critics

from rocks and stones
thrown away

as fish bones are chopped
from a clam chowder

off Newport harbor
as a visiting shapeless

Russian poet reads Bely
to his bright students

enamored with a ghosts love
as a port au prince scholar

passes a Gautier
and Poe ghost poem

in his backpack
of a newly translated

Derek Wolcott notebook
he got on the islands

sent to his summer pal
named Erica before Eric

majoring in alchemy
and chemistry 101

wanting to flood the earth
and sky with French  poetry

merges in a distopian
universe of the academy.