For Example

For Example

I would like to be a Dolomite tower

            And hear you say I mean the world to you.

Or, for example, I want to be the glistening

            Pilot fish of memory baring their skin.

Memory of sand in dunes, cliffs, or carved curves

            The sighing of the wind in long-needled pines.  

But, I am not, for example, replete with rugged good looks

            Or, for example, plenty of dead presidents.

I might, however, for example, pretend I had erudition

            Or reputation with words, bright wide awake apothegms.

Redolent with virile recall of macadam fields on

            Ascension Island in the equatorial Atlantic.

Or, for example, the Cocos, or Christmas, or Diego Garcia

            Far southern reaches where only radio aerials hum.

Or, I might for example, be a Foreign Legionnaire, in the

            Shattered aftermath of Dien Bien Phu,

Facing the Viet-Minh firing squad, a drooping cigarette

            In a fascinatingly crooked small smile.

While, for example, world and time away, you held your drink in

            Two hands in an obscure hotel bar, thinking of a husband.