little moth

I do not think you'll escape

this night

 

I do not think

you'll escape this night

little moth

 

*

 

bees in clover

summer half over

friends without lovers

 

*

 

I bite a carrot

horsefly bites me

 

*

 

I thought it was you

moving through the trees

 

but it was the trees

 

I thought it was your finger

grazing my knee

 

it was the breeze

 

I thought prayers were rising

to a god alive in my mind

 

they rose on the wind

 

I thought I had all the time

and world enough to discover what I should

 

when it was over

 

I thought I would always be young

though I knew the years passed

 

and knowing turned my hair gray

 

I thought it was a welcome

what I took for a sign-

 

the sun...the unsymboling sun...

 

*

 

watch the clouds

on any given day

even they don't keep their shape

for more than a minute

 

sociable shifters

bringing weather from elsewhere

until it's our weather

and we say now it's raining here

 

*

 

Vermont shore lit

by a fugitive sun

who doesn't believe

in a day's redemption

 

*

 

sunset renovation

at the expected hour

but the actual palette

still a surprise

 

*

 

gulls alit on the lake

little white splendors

looking to shit on the dock

 

*

 

little cat

kneading my chest

milkless breasts

take your pleasure

where you can

 

*

 

not that I was alive

but that we were