Thaw
SamplerWhen he fetched the morning paper, he read of the would-be bomber wrestled
down by fellow travelers. A mile in the air, but nothing exploded,
the man merely scorched his own shins. Here icicles fall and bleed on the ground,
his…
Oko
SamplerI smacked my foot against a table leg this morning and scolded myself: Watch where you’re going! A blood-bead stood below the nail, whose jaundiced color puzzled our grandson, here for the weekend. He asked, “Grandpa, how come you’re gold?”
But…
Overdose
SamplerHe spoke of how one day he tried to find
distraction by cleaning out his attic.
As though he could. Up there he came upon
his son’s toy Tonka tractor, pocked by rust.
It seemed a relic from an ancient age
but something too the boy might…
Your Flight
SamplerPure quiet in the room, but for tat-tat-tat–
sparks from your fireplace
against the flue. You imagine
they seek escape, as you did
in yesterday’s early morning vision,
which let you rise high, for instance,
above the frame of that…
Happy Marriage
SamplerThere’s always been discourse between us. It’s never seemed less than crucial,
but once the children grew,
its range began to grow too, and it started to stray from the normal,
if such a thing exists.
For years we’ve assumed, for instance,…
1957
SamplerThe whole thing mystified me at age fifteen. Knocking on eighty’s door, I’m a lot less mystified. I’m less troubled too, though I must allow that the event still leaves me strangely uneasy.
I’d been walking back from the school ball…