people prefer to allude to in othersbut not in themselves, in the middle of the nightthe phone rang. It rang and rangas though the world needed me,though really it was the reverse.I lay in bed, trying to analyzethe ring. It hadmy mother’s persistence and my father’spained embarrassment.When I picked it up, the line was dead.Or…
I will not speak again, will notsurvive the earth, be summonedout of it again, nota flower yet, a spine only, raw dirtcatching my ribs, I call you,father and master: all around,my companions are failing, thinkingyou do not see. Howcan they know you seeunless you save us?In the summer twilight, are youclose enough to hearyour child’s…
I know myself; I’ve learned to hear like a psychiatrist.When I speak passionately,That’s when I’m least to be trusted.It’s very sad, really: all my life I’ve been praisedFor my intelligence, my powers of language, of insight-In the end they’re wasted-I never see myself.Standing on the front steps. Holding my sisters hand.That’s why I can’t accountFor…
Weeping in the dark garageWith your sack of garbage: it is not your jobTo take out the garbage, it is your jobTo empty the dishwasher. You are showing offAgain,Exactly as you did in childhood–whereIs your sporting side, your famousIronic detachment? A little moonlight hitsThe broken window, a little summer moonlight,TenderMurmurs from the earth with its…
Child waking up in a dark roomscreaming I want my duck back, I want my duck backin a language nobody understands in the least —There is no duck.But the dog, all upholstered in white plush —the dog is right there in the crib next to him.Years and years — that’s how much time passes.All in a dream. But the…
wants to go home, backto that bony island; everyone wants a little moreof what there is in Troy, morelife on the edge, that sense of every day as beingpacked with surprises. But how to explain thisto the ones at home to whomfighting a war is a plausibleexcuse for absence, whereasexploring one’s capacity for diversionis not….
I gave you all you needed:bed of earth, blanket of blue air–As I get further away from youI see you more clearly.Your souls should have been immense by now,not what they are,small talking things–I gave you every gift,blue of the spring morning,time you didn’t know how to use–you wanted more, the one giftreserved for another…
some return on investment. I must reportfailure in my assignment, principallyregarding the tomato plants.I think I should not be encouraged to growtomatoes. Or, if I am, you should withholdthe heavy rains, the cold nights that comeso often here, while other regions gettwelve weeks of summer. All thisbelongs to you: on the other hand,I planted the…
She turns out scarves in every shade of red.They were for Christmas, and they kept you warmwhile she married over and over, taking youalong. How could it work,when all those years she stored her widowed heartas though the dead come back.No wonder you are the way you are,afraid of blood, your womenlike one brick wall…
You wanted to be born; I let you be born.When has my grief ever gottenin the way of your pleasure?Plunging aheadinto the dark and light at the same timeeager for sensationas though you were some new thing, wantingto express yourselvesall brilliance, all vivacitynever thinkingthis would cost you anything,never imagining the sound of my voiceas anything…
