The seven hills upon which Rome was built have since sunk beneath the accumulated weight of civilization. Surveillance drones, security cameras, spyware – all operate without conscience around the clock. Even so, elephants in India are drinking wine and passing out in tea gardens. I once read somewhere that Van Gogh, during one of his notorious manic episodes, ate a two-ounce tube of Ultramarine Blue paint. No one thought to ask him what it tasted like, but if someone had, he might have said it tasted just like “a daisy in the memory of a shark.”



Howie Good’s latest full-length poetry collection, Gun Metal Sky, is due in early 2021 from Thirty West.