IV

Come on, Nicky, you old long-lost mongrel

With the green eyes, wagging your tail,

Thonk, thonk, against the layers

Of my corrupted heart, let's leave

This unhealthy house and go out

Into the innocent air of 30 Augusts ago,

To the cornfields around my father's

Country house, to wander where

Viridian sumac and the cottonwoods

Quiver in the breeze of boyhood. Look,

A squinny burrow. Look, a garter snake

Green as the jimson weed it scurries through.

And there's Dad, hoeing around potato plants,

Last licks in, before the storm, hoving up

Over Happy Valley, blows all the walnuts

Off the walnut tree -- a barrage of emeralds --

Thonk, thonk, thonk -- against the house.