Inauguration Day, 2017
​
                    Overheard in the hotel lobby:
                 “I’ve finally found a woman to go with the
                   custom Mercedes XB3 convertible.”
 

It’s time to huddle
in the catacombs
over dripping candles
some say
but that’s too   
urbane and European
 
Thoreau leads us
more rugged types  
once again
to a woodsy cabin
where we can
write a diary and
think it through
 
I went there once
and watched
archaeologists
dig up a tincan-
ful of bent nails
Henry was no
 
master carpenter
and anyway
he dined most
evenings with
Emerson & Alcott
so once more
let’s push past
 
Greeleytown
run west run
but stop
Louis Simpson
saw years ago
Whitman’s Open Road
 
to comraderie ends
in a used car lot
in L. A. so
decided I’m staying
forgive Jefferson debts
bronze the
muddy boots
   
he wore that mile
from his inauguration
to his boarding house
the land lady’s supper
cold said he’d eat it
alone Sir and
find something to read.