Dark Corner
I wonder if I lived
in a dark corner
all by myself
until the only sun I ever saw
came around in the morning
I wonder if the sunlight
worked its way
through a keyhole
and little by little I was taught
never to tell a lie
I wonder of how the light of day
exerted itself
in my presence
Shoe Factory
Schenectady is a name
Schenectady is a person
Schenectady is a shoe town
Schenectady is a workingman
Schenectady works in a shoe factory
Schenectady is walkative
Schenectady is talkative
What do you know of the road to Albany
What do you know of the road to Rome
What do you know of Troy Hills
What do you know of your shoeleather
What do you know of a similar person
What do you know of the road to Schenectady
Laffs
I laffed
The moon laffed
I couldn't stop laffing
The moon kept on laffing
The moon was for a comedy of errors
I laffed
The soldiers laffed
The moon laffed some moreso
I laffed
The soldiers laffed
There was a ceremony on the moon
The moon was for a sword swallower
I laffed
The soldiers laffed
The moon laffed some moreso
The moon was funnier
There was a madcap on the moon
I laffed
I laffed some moreso
Everyone else laffed
I laffed
The moon laffed
The moon was being celebrated
The moon was being crowned
There was a comedian on the moon
City
The best thing I could think to do
Was to take a brown Crayon over a pair of shoes
And walk as far as I ever did
____________________
The Big Parade
Alfred Starr Hamilton
The Best Cellar Press, 1982
A L F R E D S T A R R H A M I L T O N
In another lifetime
I corresponded with
Alfred Starr Hamilton
of Montclair, New Jersey,
even published him,
and now and then I return
to read his poems —
I think this little book
from Best Cellar Press,
a press with another poet behind it,
catches the delights
T H E B I G P A R A D E
