Yongkang Lu, Shanghai’s former French Concession, July 19, 2013
“Banker Wins”
We have nothing in that
fanciful or speculative relation
The gap between our ears — the air
that vibrates with these words
Vocal cords to ear drums, the nerve
bundles, signal-to-noise, our
Ratio, the incentive to know
one another’s minds
Drop predictable experience
here, abandon all hope
Of anything but change
O — O — the poetic O of apostrophe
Thinking one could know,
understand? Let us try again: I
Was six when I first read, I think,
of the firebombing of Dresden
At seven I felt a rush
at the sight of a blonde
Pinup below the cockpit
desert-pink camouflaged B‑25
