Poem of Reconstruction by Bill Stobb

                          for Spoon Bridge and Cherry

                          by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen

adolescent weathers traffic debris                             

the present: one                    cherry looking never

lost: what

balance                                in high winds

degrees intensify  

a spoon                                   of difficulty

when detail as loose

wrappers bags and dirt rides

current stories up into                                     renovation

architecture’s aging                                     garden

the sky                                                                 closed          

rearranges flower boxes

in the face of front-loaders                             

foreground gold sky four                    construction’s orange

stories down to street                                     

level scene one                    illegal

teenage wind and site refuse teenage

lovers beyond               trouble

garden views                      yellow

               caution

               tape      needle

spoon         (name the baby)                 spoon

debris shard of broken                                               

streetlamp                                                           of many

imprints the play of many                         

swallows                             (cherry)                              troubles

**

Bill Stobb Poem translated by Jen Currin

Naming the Bridge

                                    --for Cherry

Looking in high winds—

hinge and creak.

Difficult detail: the present.

Intensify: the gold.

Aging sky.

Now it is loose, begging

your pardon.

She makes a space to live in.

Now she lifts the spoon.

Lost: what.

Adolescent gardens. Debris.

Humming a walk.

A lamp. Illegal.

Enlightenment: many, often

chagrined.

Cautioned

to swallow

the bridge.

Now she lifts the spoon.

Detail: not gold.

Like orange boxes:

“Let’s unpack the sky.”

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