Poetry

Replay

for Judy Couffer, 1955-1986 All afternoon I try not to watch the shuttle explode. On silent televisions throughout the hospital it lifts, a compact shining house astride a column of flame, curves, and blows apart, each piece leaving its trail of smoke as it dives for the sea. Again and again, the camera slides over…

September, Running With Birds

     High above, the flock hones itself to winter leanness, a plow. The point enters spilling its message.      When one in that two-strand of dark moves out I'm uneasy until      the others regroup, enfold it. There is no possibility of loss, the community      knows where it must go. Threaded, no one can fall as it heads…

Four Bones for Late March

THE MARRIAGE BONE Once broken it tends to give under pressure. Though the knit serves, the gait will always be slightly protective, the limb will remember a fault line, the snap of its failing. It may bear your weight cunningly down the avenues of custom so that no one else notices. Left/right, left/right—walk you will…

The Mountain

for CHW (1916-1979) 1. The Mountain A meadow in Vermont, on Bread Loaf Mountain. I watched you walk with a dancer's quick walk along the path on the edge of the meadow. Your shoulders were bent like a scholar's but your legs were the legs of a dancer. Your jacket, thick for a hot summer…

Wanting

Coastal rain, an iron sky. Granite mainland, granite island. It's too cold, I'm too cold, to row across to the mainland. The pickup needs an inspection; I ought to row over across and drive her to Gray for a sticker. Let it wait. There's still time. There's time this morning to read the whole day,…