Intimations of Mortalityon being told by the dentist that this will be over soonIndeed, it will soon be over, I shall be doneWith the querulous drill, the forceps, the clove-smelling cotton.I can go forth into fresher air, into sun,This narrow anguish forgotten.In twenty minutes or forty or half an hour,I shall be easy, and proud…
Goodbye, ‘revoir, farewell.Now day comes late; now chillier blows the breeze onForsaken beach and boarded-up hotel.Now wild geese fly together in thin linesAnd Tourist Homes take down their lettered signs.It fades–this green this lavish intervalThis time of flowers and fruits,Of melon ripe along the orchard wall,Of sun and sails and wrinkled linen suits;Time when the…
A man of wrath, a man of war,A man who truculently boreOver his shoulder, like a lance,A banner labeled “Tolerance.”And when I asked him why he strodeThus scowling down the human road,Scowling, he answered, “I am heWho champions total liberty —Intolerance being, ma’am, a stateNo tolerant man can tolerate.“When I meet rogues,” he cried, “who…
They are dragon-seekers, bent on impossible rescues.Scratch any father, you findSomeone chock-full of qualms and romantic terrors,Believing change is a threat –Like your first shoes with heel on, like your first bicycleIt took months to get.Walk in strange woods, they warn you about the snakes there.Climb and they fear you’ll fall.Books, angular looks, swimming in…
I wish I weighed a little lessAnd could read Latin.Had perfect pitch or matching pearls,A better head for street directions,And seven daughters, all with curlsAnd fair complexions.I wish I’d tan instead of burn.But most, on all the stars that glisten,I wish at parties I could learnto sit and listen.I wish I didn’t talk so much…
(As if transfixed in unsurrendering amber)This hour best of all the hours I knew:When cars came backing into the shabby station,Children scuffing the seats, and the women drivingWith ribbons around their hair, and the trains arriving,And the men getting off with tired but practiced motion.Yes, I would remember my life like this, she said:Autumn, the…
Daniel at breakfast studies world disasterand sips his orange juice.the words dismay him. headlines shrilly chatterof famine, storm, death, pestilence, decay.Daniel is gloomy, reaching for the butter.he shudders at the waywar stalks the planet still, and men know hunger,go shelterless, betrayed, may perish soon.the coffee’s weak again. in sudden angerDaniel throws down his spoonand broods…
Which means, each April that arrives,We lose an hour out of our lives.Who cares? When autumn birds in flocksFly southward, back we turn the clocks,And so regain a lovely thingThat missing hour we lost in spring.
The sheer ones hoarded these weeks to wear withFrocks the closets do not disclose?Perfumes, petticoats, sports chapeaus,The blouse Parisian, the earrings Spanish –Everything suddenly up and goes.And where in the world did the children vanish?This is the house I used to share withGirls in pinafores, shier than does.I can recall how they climbed my stairs…
