984. Some Say - Maureen N. McLane

Some say a host

of horsemen, a horizon

of ships under sail

is most beautiful &

some say a mountain

embraced by the clouds &

some say the badass

booty-shakin’ shorties

in the club are most

beautiful and some say

the truth is most

beautiful dutifully singing

what beauty might

sound under stars

of a day. I say

what they say

is sometimes

what I say

Her legs long

and bare shining

on the bed the hair

the small tuft

the brown languor

of a long line

of sunlit skin I say

whatever you say

I’m saying is beautiful

& whither truth beauty

and whither whither

in the weather of an old day

suckerpunched by a spiral

of Arctic air blown

into vast florets of ice

binding the Great Lakes

into a single cracked sheet

the airplanes fly

unassuming over    O they eat

and eat the steel mouths

and burn what the earth

spun eons to form

Some say calamity

and some catastrophe

is beautiful    Some say

porn     Some jolie laide

Some say beauty

is hanging there at a dank bar

with pretty and sublime

those sad bitches left behind

by the horsemen