Tony D'Arpino

Ideogram at Heathrow

The American night

Is the name of a tree

And a river of jazz

Parallel to history

In the morning

The trees are crazy

The horizon

Made of paper

Knife handle mother of pearl

Never angry in the morning

The history of music

Alive in the dead

Waiting for the double

Song within the song

The fog of the airport lifting light

To the setting sun

Two trees etched scribble

South of the real tree

I liked it so much

I changed the ending

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Commentary

I had a need to write some kind of US/UK friendship poem. We’re already friends, it’s not that. But I found both countries troubled. Statecraft a series of dirty tricks. Nationalism a fascist code. And this was before the pandemic. The poem has just been published in Volume Poetry (volumepoetry.com) an English / American magazine.