The blinds of the lowlands are holland or
Blind hopes that conflation will give;
As a suitor impatient to call on her,
(Doesn’t passion decay to obliv…
To oblivious, lying, oblivion?
And our spirits are mineral, polymer,
Not the birds and the bees as the pollen are
Raisins, dates — raisons d’être to live,)
I’m marking the dates on the colander,
And the calendar leaks like a sieve.
NOTES for Students of English
holland – A kind of linen or cotton cloth, often glazed, first made in Holland; it is used in window shades.
our spirits are mineral – A play on “spirits” meaning 1) souls, and 2) chemical distillations. “Mineral spirits” is a petroleum distillate used as a paint thinner. The term “spirits” for distillates goes back to medieval alchemy; stones and metals were considered to have bodies and spirits as men did.