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Sunday, September 19, 2021

Robert Haas


The Failure of Buffalo to Levitate


Millard Fillmore died here.

His round body is weighted by marble angels.

He lies among the great orators of the Iroquois.

 

Paint does not arrest the tradebook houses

In their elegant decay. They peel

Like lizards in the dying avenues of elm.

 

Gentle enough, night drifts

Above the yellow bursts of aspen in the park.

Something innocent and reptilian

 

Suffers here, cumbrously.

The souls of the wives of robber barons

Are imprisoned in the chandeliers.

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