Lenny DellaRocca       Delray Beach      (Meryl Stratford)
For Medicinal Purposes

If we hadn’t been out there doing the mini-search for aesthetics 
nobody would have known about it, the expansion,
all over the horizon 
trying to make something of itself. 
The rain came in as proposed 
and the variety 
troupe practiced stumbling in 
and out of 
the afternoon. The rest of us 
kept our wits 
in our hats in case someone 
needed them later 
at the hanging. The boat poets 
arrived with a pause, 
which some felt was instinctive. 
What was known 
about trifles 
and mechanical things, underground music for example, was scraped 
away with a map. The big clouds 
seemed to sense 
something. Roger took off his funny hat 
and the children 
laughed. The card game went 
on with guests 
slapping their pounds 
and lire with flair. Still, the circumference 
was there. But however 
grateful the gang was for the lemonade 
and French lessons, 
the facts, such as they 
were about the enlarged world, kept us 
in our chairs 
waiting for the gendarme. 
On the back acre of the lawn Roger’s 
goat chased the parrots into hysteria. It was quite the thing to see.