_ _ What can be salvaged that remains buried?
You’re asking me?
A row of Appennine cypress hemming the driveway
is the only clue left in the dream remembered with any clarity.
After that, you find yourself walking toward a grainy dusk
you hadn’t anticipated nor felt the need to embrace.
But the street continues nonetheless and the tram wires prove it,
suspended like an abandoned cobweb
against a dank sky on the outskirts.
Once you get past the shop windows
there’s a noon whistle and the storage yard empties
and a blue tarp is thrown on the crowd.
A peeling billboard sits centered in a derelict field,
wordless and ghostly. The pylon nearby needs painting.
![](/uploads/Gerard-Malanga.jpg)
Gerard Malanga is an American poet, photographer, and filmmaker best known for his work with artist Andy Warhol. His latest book publications are AM: Archives Malanga, A 4-volume set of fanzines (Dagon James/Key Press, NYC), and Ghostly Berms, an exhibition catalogue published by In-Arco Gallery (Torino, Italy). He makes his home with four cats in a country retreat in upstate New York. His website is gerardmalanga.com. (updated 6/2013)