All day the blanket snapped and swelled
on the line, roused by a hot spring wind....
From there it witnessed the first sparrow,
early flies lifting their sticky feet,
...
Now wind torments the field,
turning the white surface back
on itself, back and back on itself,
like an animal licking a wound.
...
Yes, long shadows go out
from the bales; and yes, the soul
must part from the body:
what else could it do?
...
'Give me some light!' cries Hamlet's
uncle midway through the murder
of Gonzago. 'Light! Light!' cry scattering
...
Christ has been done to death
in the cold reaches of northern Europe
a thousand thousand times.
Suddenly bread
...
I took the last
dusty piece of china
out of the barrel.
It was your gravy boat,
...
Rebuked, she turned and ran
uphill to the barn. Anger, the inner
arsonist, held a match to her brain.
She observed her life: against her will
...
The shirt touches his neck
and smooths over his back.
It slides down his sides.
...
Her sickness brought me to Connecticut.
Mornings I walk the dog: that part of life
is intact. Who's painted, who's insulated
...
Drugged and drowsy but not asleep
I heard my blind roommate's daughter
helping her with her meal:
...