Fifteen years ago his heart
infarcted and he stopped smoking.
At eighty he trembled
like a birch but remained vigorous
and acute.

A storm was coming, that was why i
A child walked outside. I knew th
The elephant was taller than the r
The lion backed off, whining. The
Out of the window I saw zebras an

My son, my executioner,
I take you in my arms,
Quiet and small and just astir
And whom my body warms.
Sweet death, small son, our instru

It has happened suddenly,
by surprise, in an arbor,
or while drinking good coffee,
after speaking, or before,
that I dumbly inhabit

In October of the year,
he counts potatoes dug from the br
counting the seed, counting
the cellar’s portion out,
and bags the rest on the cart’s fl

Twelve people, most of us stranger
in Ann Arbor, drinking Cribari fr
Then two young men, who cooked him
carry him to the table
on a large square of plywood: his

“Up, down, good, bad,” said
the man with the tubes
up his nose, " there’s lots
of variety…
However, notions

December twenty-first
we gather at the white Church fest
red and green, the tree flashing
green-red lights beside the altar.
After the children of Sunday Scho

When I walk in my house I see pic
bought long ago, framed and hangin
—de Kooning, Arp, Laurencin, Hen
that I’ve cherished and stared at
yet my eyes keep returning to the

1. Baseball, I warrant, is not
occupation of the aging boy.
Far from it: There are cats and r
there is her water body. She fills
the skin of her legs up, like wate