Frank William Finney

On the night you fell
on the narrow steps
you found your seat in the boat, as usual,
while Papa woke the Evinrude
...

Three sailors trotted
Behind your mother in a two-wheeled lifeboat
Like determined rats through the catwalks
To the cages of the newborns
...

Stuck to their ears
or courting their lips
everyone's got a gadget
...

The towel of a stranger
lies dead on the beach
as the wind through the reeds
sings to the lovers sweating in the dunes
...

Begin alla prima.
Paint yourself a podium and try
your luck while the wall's still wet.
...

It's been three years
since we chased the piglets
under the uplifted fence
and startled the old sow
...

The steer with the bullhorn's
hoofed it home
Tonight we'll hear no more from him
Let him bellow at passengers in his dreams
...

On the morning of your initiation,
the clock became the target of scorn.
The crows were grazing in the sprouting grass
and the cows were chewing endless
...

I named the puppy Sisyphus
because he walked in circles
in a pup tent.
...

"Mammals tipple
and think they can sing, "

quipped the frog
...

Before they installed the arrow signal lights,
left turns were risky enough at this intersection.

No less than twice a week,
...

And if he were sitting here
on this sinking summer evening-

he might set down
...

Those token drumrolls into place,
that familiar bass line falls in line
till it finds the keys
and the brassy brass.
...