i.

Amid scuttles
Amid calumny huts
Amid predicaments hurtling yet durable

Amid shifty filigree
Amid a flotilla seething
Amid grievances of the haunch

Amid talk shops
Amid a furious pewter cupboard
Amid the spindly and vermilion social

Amid big vapors
Amid the siren-clad welkin
Amid what booms hollow

ii.

Their attention lively but lacking
object their dinner plaint their
pilfered millinery their fun silver and
convex their fustian marrow their
clean sex their waggish opulence
for example when drinking from
bottles their gab insinuates
what it does not grasp their bright
napkin confidence their feathery
bookishness their wanton suitability

iii.

Does a responsible person mutter
Does a corkscrew fathom
Does a lone fellow rub off
Do evenings extend roseate
Do people have parties
Do people want that
Does doubt occur

If a night jar
If a flint spoke
If some threads converge
If frost glisters
If thews soften
If in a wood
If they were having a nice time

And in grist verdant
And in thaw starkest
And in spilling light
And she stepped off a bus
And was unrecognizable
And could never abide carnation
And nonetheless dwelt