May Second
(1808 AD)

bottle tops unscrewed
tighter than the tightest
oyster refusing to open
even at knife-point

plastic this many layered
onion-skin’s pliant defiance
waging its guerrilla war
against arthritic fingers

words tongue-twisted
damning dark mouths
white picket fences
midnight the faces
lightning the teeth

felonious figures
grimy with grimaces
Mother Hubbard’s
cupboard empty hearts

robin redbreasts
battering heads wings
against stony cobbles
this city this square