swifts  &  s l o w s · a quarterly of crisscrossings

the street of dreams
Joseph Balletti

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Ashes
for William S. Burroughs

These ashes. This Earth.
Of places—only places now.
Still the question of where to go.
Alone on the street of dreams.

Abandoned Uranium Mine in Siberia

There are places where the earth boils—
Dark tunnels into the fiend’s heart.
Nothing left here but the prison in the old camp.
Uranium mine. Uranium mine.
A landscape of nameless graves,
And two million rubber boots
Rotting in the red ruin.

Another War

Ashes falling in the hollow moan
Of twilight in America.
This time they’ve gone too far.

Violins

I never thought giving up
could be so simple.
Sunlight streams through the
dirty windows.
I’m listening to the complete works of
Mozart, on a computer.
It could take months,
And could be the solution
to all of my problems.
Final proof
Of my
Lust for life.

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Joseph Balletti studied with Allen Ginsberg at Brooklyn College. These poems are from his book, Seldom Seen Poems. He has also written two novels: The Goddess of Wealth, and The Work of Ages.