Barbra Nightingale   Hollywood                  (Geoffrey Philp)
The 18th Chili Dog

after Ashbery

It was summer
   or the end of summer
Indian Summer has gone out of fashion.
   Cancel culture and all that. 

The skies at night are red and white streaked
   with blue, or checkerboard
like those papers in the basket
   at Boardwalk eateries.

There was a can waiting to be filled,
   a blank page waiting to be inked.
It all happens so suddenly
   it’s hard to take it all in.

That’s when the bell rings
   ending it all.
Or is it just the beginning?
   Look to the east.