As an ant is powerless Against a raised boot, And only has an instant To have a bright idea or two. The black boot so polished,

I liked my little hole, Its window facing a brick wall. Next door there was a piano. A few evenings a month a crippled old man came to play

A world’s disappearing. Little street, You were too narrow, Too much in the shade already. You had only one dog,

Not a peep out of you now After the bedlam early this mornin… Are you begging pardon of me Hidden up there among the leaves, Or are your brains momentarily ove…

The mail truck goes down the coast Carrying a single letter. At the end of a long pier The bored seagull lifts a leg now… And forgets to put it down.

You give the appearance of listeni… To my thoughts, o trees, Bent over the road I am walking On a late summer evening When every one of you is a steep s…

They arrive inside They object at evening. There’s no one to meet them. The lamps they carry Cast their shadows

A New Version: 1980 What is that little black thing I… in the white? Walt Whitman One

There was a melon fresh from the g… So ripe the knife slurped As it cut it into six slices. The children were going back to sc… Their mother, passing out paper pl…

Of the light in my room: Its mood swings, Dark-morning glooms, Summer ecstasies. Spider on the wall,

How much death works, No one knows what a long Day he puts in. The little Wife always alone Ironing death’s laundry.

To find clues where there are none… That’s my job now, I said to the Dictionary on my desk. The world… My window has grown illegible, And so has the clock on the wall.

Here come my night thoughts On crutches, Returning from studying the heaven… What they thought about Stayed the same,

In my great grandmother’s time, All one needed was a broom To get to see places And give the geese a chase in the… •

Executioner happy to explain How his wristwatch works As he shadows me on the street. I call him that because he is grim… And wears black.