81
–A.R. Ammons
trust no one: there is not a shred of loyalty
that will not yield to advantage or change of

circumstance: when you do what you’re supposed
to do and others do what they’re supposed to

do, trust is not called for: (the point,
actually is to foray for aye – and not to

yield): (you know how wide the universe is;
we can blow off a few spots and nothing

ever missing): oh, foller the dollar, it knows
the way: dam the way up, so the dollars get

out of hand in mounds, deep chests, and long
keepings, moldy trusts: put your dollars to

work: and stay home yourself: if you don’t
have two dollars, start with one: pretty soon

you’ll be sitting around thinking of all the
things money can’t buy: (it is important to

note that all states are miserable: the only
joy is in thinking it desirable to get from

one to the other, state, I mean: California
is the best state, because you can’t get to

another state that way, so your misery can
turn into the delights of imagining an East:

oh, the tricky land of the luck-strewn East,
the painted temples scribbled and scrolled

so amply as to allow the falling out of the
farthest personal chance, number: let’s see:

what other moralizing can I do, orders give,
prayers urge – all unimaged, unexampled:

(take Long San Temple, for example, the
dolphins yin and yang circling the center,

a floridity of dragons (florality?) entertwining
the outside of the circle, the inside of the

octagon): Shakespeare, heightening artifice,
renaturalizes nature…