Secular Eden

Six o'clock in secular Eden-

No one will ever fall from grace

Where the bells are electric, and the chimes

Of a French municipal hall

Preserve us in time.

The Place de la Grande Armee

Is empty. The Place de la Paix

With its locked-up church, and its one café,

Illuminates the flag of state

At the end of the Seventh Day.

A rattle of skateboards -

Children playing. There go lovers,

Crossing race and bloodline. And the flight-paths

Write their celestial Word

On the sky above us

In silence, on the deepening blue.

No guilt now, only vertigo

To the end of time, if anyone stops to think-

And the lights of cash-dispensers

From the all-night banks

Coming on, as if by a hidden hand.

And the apokatastasis

Of the healthfood shop, to be entered into,

With the pure, organic apple

There in its window.