Joseph McLaughlin

CAMP AT THE END OF THE WORLD

go to the woods and the lake in rain the great black birds are calling for you wait for the sky to blossom, the air with heat and fragrance the great black birds are calling for you leave behind your plastic and metal world, go to the spirit gate the great black birds are calling for you say your name, say your name

BLUE TENT

about once a month, now the gypsies arrive winding up the hill in song wagons tinkling, instruments filling the air with music they erect a big, blue tent as if it were a wedding day we dance with them to the skree of violins, the bash of tambourines by evening the fire is going, the stars are quiet, the gypsies withdrawn to their wagons we enter the tent for an hour alone Joseph McLaughlin recently retired as an Associate Professor of English at Stark State College of Technology in Canton, Ohio. His current collection of poems is Memory, In Your Country (Pale Horse Press, 1995).

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