I kill time at ACME SMASH REPAIRS,
wait for the beaten out, re-ducoed job,
walk the pavement alongside
six lanes of traffic sliding past.
- Display window baited with PERSIAN CARPETS,
Oh, but isn't it beautiful - a woman caught
and caressing a carpet; salesman eloquent -
A reproduction, madam, of a miniature.
Kills time too. Leopards pace under
flowering trees where long tailed birds
call their tereu, tereu, jug-jug.
Deer graze among rocks. Quail run
hiding in grasses or wide open flowers.
Here time withstands the re-curved bow,
damascened blade, plough's tooth,
slitting, stripping clean away,
leaving a clean picked carcass to Shahs
and Standard Oil. And I walk out
into acrid air of exhausts: Persia burning.
Time for the hammered out, re-ducoed job.
