By the Canal
Frederick Pollack
They pile out of the church,
even the former pastor clutching
relics of the old faith –
an altarcloth, cross, hymnal,
railing from the choir stall –
which they will toss in the canal
or fight with. For along the boulevard
foes of your word have gathered, some only
to stare, some to kill. And anger lends
the street vitality: boarded windows
look coy, singed doors and sidings
piquant, the car-wash and the multi-armored
bank clever, liquor stores inviting.
You remark on the unexpectedness
of beauty. As always, silence
appears around your words, which disciples record.
The canal that bisects the neighborhood
doesn’t smell, the former factory (once
reglazed) will be ready to
produce transcendent goods for higher men.
These words are also taken down, but after them
you cry. Perhaps an urchin of the neighborhood
is the cause (in any case you have one
in your sight); perhaps it’s just the beauty
the canal, the district, even your foes
will have, once …
once. Half the police who have gathered
are with you, since word got out
that you forbid (or was it sanction?) violence;
they too cry. As always when unsure
for a moment how to proceed, you seek
the sky and consider the role
of death in your system.
Frederick Pollack
Author of two book-length narrative poems, The Adventure (Story Line Press, 1986; reissued April 2022 by Red Hen Press) and Happiness (Story Line Press, 1998), and four collections, A Poverty of Words (Prolific Press, 2015), Landscape with Mutant (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018), The Beautiful Losses (Better Than Starbucks Books, 2023), and The Liberator (Survision Books, Ireland, 2024). In print, Pollack’s work has appeared in Hudson Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, Manhattan Review, Skidrow Penthouse, Main Street Rag, Miramar, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Poetry Quarterly Review, Magma (UK), Neon (UK), Orbis (UK), Armarolla, December, and elsewhere. Online, his poems have appeared in Big Bridge, Diagram, BlazeVox, Mudlark, Occupoetry, Faircloth Review, Triggerfish, Big Pond Rumours (Canada), Misfit, OffCourse and elsewhere. Website: www.frederickpollack.com