Cedar Cigar Box

by Murray Shugars

I can insert any memory you like here —

Maybe something I read in a history book
A dry galantine served to obese monks
Doomed for the guillotine three days hence

The proud head of a galloping pony
I saw at a county fair when I was twelve

The gallant lungs of a mudfish breathing
Hoarsely — anything I can remember
However big or small will fit in here

The size of a loud laugh suddenly
Broken by a lover’s frown
A horse’s whinny or cat’s purr
The shape of a fist or violin

The carnivorous eye of a panting sparrow
I saw in the desert near Mosul
During a combat patrol

Everything that passes
Through the forehead of a lonesome buzzard

Every dancing every danceable decision
I wish I’d made before the lid fell