By The Way

Too late a version came close
to recognizing the path
between the decades, you
there absconding with the three
best arbitrations and seven
time-tested suggestions, leave
if you will to do no harm,
build no excess in the examples.
Starlings tucked into the easterly
props are props themselves
all the way from nest to flit,
a wrestle with national slaves
as sacred thoughts stream and gather.
Posterity wears our clothes backward,
while books struggle to cash-in.
An awareness of you in the layers
concocts brand new revelations,
tight old secrets held up in transit
between ticket fare and gas station
play rummy with old dolls and dragons
in the corner behind the hat stand.