Vertex of the Chrysler Building, pray for me; linemen, bartenders, muses, pray for me;
crow covered highway, sing for me; over the bridge of a Washburn 6-string, lay me;
crazed molecule! terse atom! play for me; with the moans of forklifts, speak for me; in
satin, sable, calico, adorn me; squat propane containers of Bayonne, provide for me; as
the kestrel takes wing, revive me, nimbly, sweetly, feloniously, devoutly; by signal post,
by relay tower, restrain me; if Ember days, claim me; dioramas of Cro-Magnon man,
stand for me; willow bough and spikenard, shade me; until five winters roll from the
Sierra Madre, train me; Nahuas, Zapotecs, Huicholes, do not sentence me; Magellanic
clouds, save me; arboreous morning hung on white adobe, enlighten me; with a high-
strung C, redeem me; through clefts of granite, girder, limestone, release me; when the
fuse is blown, seek me; do not forsake me; remember me
from steepled sea to shining
“Unquiet” borrows the phrase “crazed molecule! terse atom!” from Cesar Vallejo’s “Telúrica y Magnética” (trans. by Clayton Eshleman) and is for Cyril Connolly