The Quiet World
In an effort to get people to lookinto each other's eyes more,
and also to appease the mutes,
the government has decided
to allot each person exactly one hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.
When the phone rings, I put it to my ear
without saying hello. In the restaurant
I point at chicken noodle soup.
I am adjusting well to the new way.
Late at night, I call my long distance lover,
proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.
I saved the rest for you.
When she doesn't respond,
I know she's used up all her words,
so I slowly whisper I love you
thirty-two and a third times.
After that, we just sit on the line
and listen to each other breathe.
Jeffrey McDaniel
***********
Commemoration
They made love among the hazel shrubs
beneath the suns of dew,
entangling in their hair
a leafy residue.
Heart of the swallow
have mercy on them.
They knelt down by the lake,
combed out the earth and leaves,
and fish swam to the water's edge
shimmering like stars.
Heart of the swallow
have mercy on them.
The reflections of trees were steaming
off the rippling waves.
O swallow let this memory
forever be engraved.
O swallow, thorn of clouds,
anchor of the air,
Icarus improved,
Assumption in formal wear,
O swallow, the calligrapher,
timeless second hand,
early ornithogothic,
a crossed eye in the sky,
O swallow, pointed silence,
mourning full of joy,
halo over lovers,
have mercy on them.
Wislawa Szymborska
(1923-2012)
| Littlefoot, 19, [This is the bird hour] | ||
19
This is the bird hour, peony blossoms falling bigger than wren hearts
On the cutting border's railroad ties,
Sparrows and other feathery things
Homing from one hedge to the next,
late May, gnat-floating evening.
Is love stronger than unlove?
Only the unloved know.
And the mockingbird, whose heart is cloned and colorless.
And who's this tiny chirper,
lost in the loose leaves of the weeping cherry tree?
His song is not more than three feet off the ground, and singular,
And going nowhere.
Listen. It sounds a lot like you, hermane.
It sounds like me. | ||
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