Dead Poet

                                -- after Jules Supervielle

          right
              now--hand
him an
ant, a spider
                        anything
little to
hold
              beak of
        swallow
        sparrow
        wren
                     put in his palm
slivers of rain-
damp grass
                 changing
to green again
                           let him
feel rough
red brick with each finger-
tip
            or pebbles
through his shoes--

                           next to
nothing he's
been emptied out
under the moon,
                         in this
void
laced with stars
                             --but he'll
give back
song
           words dancing
sarabande as they call up what's
ungraspable as air,
                            make hidden
light rise inside snow
                               or show
luminescent
domes of cloud piled at
the sky's far edge
                          --he sings name
on name,
               then offers
quiet too, its wide
erasure

              he who waits
alone & friendless,
                              steeped in the
shadow of a wall or spring-
flowering tree





                   7/22


         lit
         now
                  how the deep-
lobed maple
                           fluttery locust
pull with a
wind
        stretching them
tight
in between





         A slow


         a slow
kind of
breeze
           parting leaf
from leaf
                  this deliberation
letting yarrow
soar
        formally
like flat-topped
milky clouds
                   while the air
mists
silvered grey
                   & a window blinks
distantly
                 opalescent as though
some-
one you remember
remembered
                  you
      there
               & who maybe
waved --





      Moon,/the clear star-


        moon,
                  the clear star-
             light

winds more than
edgy
          engage these
pond willows
                    /
                      head to
                 head in night
dances,
            low over ice a
     click
            clicking
of "sticks"