My Kenneth Fearing Stab (10/05?)

Self-centered, self-absorbed, euphemism for selfish,
Preoccupied with markets, with new properties, with
Turning the properties over on the markets, with yields,
And with dividends, and with average daily balances,
With deposits and withdrawals, with investment patterns,
With setting oneself up for life and with providing for
One’s future and the future of one’s family and one’s estate—
surely one can counter-argue this is healthy,
Better than being a flagellant or a bomb-thrower
In a crowded theater or pretending to be the last of
the courageous men in the world, a total dope, a blowhard?
He had maintenance issues said the guy with the ponytail
Whose sincerity was undoubted, who didn’t want to impose
Heavy trips on anyone, but wanted to show how caring
He really was, how he’d like to give everyone in the room
A hug, but there isn’t any time what with the schedule.
All I really want to do is show how much I share among
The human community, this circle, me and you, you can call
Me by my first name, I am also executive director, chief
Vision officer of a small firm specializing in enhanced
Digital telepathy, not that I wish to probe, disturb
Your personal space, your circle, which I do not confuse
With the circle that we have—together, us—not one or two.
But I might add, not so much as codicil than as admonition
That like all of us, you also have an issue with your fathers,
So as my young wife has had her first child how deeply
I ponder this, whether at work, or on the way to work, on
My custom-made Italian racing bicycle with its frame of
Pressurized carbon on which I’ve rode to work and cruised
On coastal roads, through cities become consecutively smaller,

Until they are those cemeteries with slate headstones from the past
Fenced in with wrought iron, where the uncut grass waves
Its chaff to the gun-metal sky, and a rain is about to visit
this old mill town, and I lie perfectly awake, day-dreaming
but a voice urges don’t be so indulgent, keep to the ground
for the people, the people here, my audience, mon sembables,
my consumer, target audience, sole patron, mes amis.