an old home movie on videotape
put in the videocassette & press play
you hear that old familiar click & rattle
of the VCR when onscreen the scene is
a moment in your travels in sweden
at the viking burial mounds outside Uppsala
the summer sky peppered with huge white clouds
an ordinary swedish summer day
& the mounds are ancient
things that take your breath away
when a tour bus pulls into the parking lot
stops & tumbles out is a group of elderly americans
making their own holiday
funny loud & typical you hear one man say
'i've heard two things about sweden
its smorgasbords & its beautiful women
i've seen its women now where are the smorgasbords!'
the tape stops at that final declaration
of naivety & industry
of a man who knows nothing
but then everything centers toward him
as a stay against decay & death
death holds sway
which holds its resolve for everyone
under the bright clear swedish summer sun
