UH-OH, HERE IT COMES AGAIN

(a John Ashbery birthday cento for the Walrus)


The years whirled quickly by, an upward spiral
in all the spheres leading up to where the master
of meaning comes from? Obviously,

Unclench a long-sought definition:
unwitting orang utans gambled for socks
The theme was articulated, the brightness filled in
While life grows increasingly mysterious and dangerous
One might like to rest or read,
But if one were to invent being a child again
And all the belly buttons danced around
to whose destiny we are being summoned

moment. Time under the tree passes
The annual race is on -
of decades ago peeling off from the mass