Meditations of a Parrot

        Oh the rocks and the thimble
	The oasis and the bed
	Oh the jacket and the roses.
	 
        All sweetly stood up the sea to me
	Like blue cornflakes in a white bowl.
	The girl said, “Watch this.”
	 
        I come from Spain, I said.
	I was purchased at a fair.
	She said, “None of us know.
	 
       “There was a house once
	Of dazzling canopies
	And halls like a keyboard.
	 
        “These the waves tore in pieces.”
	(His old wound—
	And all day: Robin Hood!  Robin Hood!)