PETER RILEY

The Grand Conversation Was Under the Rose

The person in his/her moment supreme.
Of the successions of which history is the sum.
So the grand conversation can start.  Art
And poetry and all their costly trappings
Immediately vanish forever – there’s plenty
Of time, no one’s making a recording, sit down
Here and be the failure yur heart’s ease knows.
Don’t be modern, don’t be threatened,
Be just, be welcome and be kindly and the earth
Is yours for the duration.  The stage is set
Because the heart is in need, adverbs and
Prepositions everywhere begging to be used.
Like the surface of the earth rolling into itself
We know and have always known what this

Gift is for, placed on our lips.  It is for
Time’s reconciliation.  It is for eloquent farewells

And that grand coversation under the rose.

Peter Riley