IMPROVISATION#135
THE SHIELD OF TIME
HARRY MATHEWS
(1930- 2017)

Clouds commence now
this late February
we do not leave you
in your novels and poetry
there is no shroud, Harry
that may cover you
in your discovering sequences
as you inhabited a space
of an empty room
in Manhattan
we believe you
when words took off
from cool invention
when words settle in
an unfashionable pattern
by this announcement set
to disclose
without regrets
as in your prose
of "Cigarettes."