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