William Burns - Two Poems

Sad the day
When the hand and heart
Are caught in cross currents

Thunder pounds at the door
Souls moan in the chimney

The hand shakes
The heart quivers

The gutted yester-dream cars
     lay on their sides
     like trophy-shot dinosaurs on display.

The scavenger rats scuttle about
     rattle tink, rattle rattle tink tink....
They fear that if the moon rises
     they will have to hide.
   Such are the rumors of rats.
  
The moon rises on shiny hubcaps.
It's OK,
     as moon rises go....

The rats scatter.
They will be back in a short while,
     it doesn't matter.

I can see the river now.
It trudges through the trash,
     like an impotent old man
     who thinks he's doing the world some big favor.

Over there between two cars,
     a couple of daffodils bloom.
I walk over to look at them.
 I startle a rat,
     Sorry....

There is only one daffodil.
The other is a piece of yellow plastic,
     it doesn't matter,
     at a distance its hard to tell.

They are OK,
     as daffodils go.