"Barn Burning," Al Purdy

[switchercat.livejournal.com]

I just acquired an enormous fat book of Al Purdy and I am gonna post bits of him here, slowly, because he deserves it. Rough and good.

*

Stayed up late
working on a prose piece
around 2 a.m.
when a great light bulged in at the windows
and peered at what I was writing
making it trivial

I drove there
half a mile away
in a kind of anxiety
for I don't know what
maybe fear of the red monster
I parked at a safe distance
while cops prowled around like sleepwalkers
dreaming of arson
with blank expressions
acting like they were needed somewhere else
while the planet burned

( It was more than a fire )