Ritual Sight II.

The first poem was about scene and introducing the character "you" slightly. The odd metaphore that the scene is historical is mixed with a character who is looking/wishing for something.

In this scene, the meter and orderliness of the poem starts to change and break down. That's part of the foreboding the main character- you - has for the coming of winter.

ii.

The ritual of years has fallen,
Week by week, again into autumn.
A new stand of diseased trees

Back from the water’s edge
Burn into black. Shop owners stand
In their windows, hands raised
To an officer.

Men,
Here from the city, crowd outdoor cafes.
The evening lights in oily
Water mute the spiraling
Outward of your thoughts

It will
Repeat, all events repeat, reproduce,
Never moving on.

Starlings
Round the apartment tower

With chitters to set your teeth.
Dead branches applaud.
Turtles swim home between chewed

Stalks
Of cattails. You watch a shopping-cart filled
With water work deeper in mud. On your knees
On the concrete ledge over water, you could reach out
A hand.

The lake
Fountain stirs, quiets
And settles for the season. You watch ducks
Gather mouthfuls of food two months
Before the first possibility of snow.


There is no hint, in this poem, of the historical other than to directly mention that history rounds and repeats itself.