So Many Things I Had Thought Forgotten

Heads In The Women's Ward On Pillow After Pillow Lies The Wild White Hair And Staring Eyes; Jaws Stand Open; Necks Are Stretched With Every Tendon Sharply Sketched; A Bearded Mouth Talks Silently To Someone No One Else Can See. Sixty Years Ago They Smiled At Lover, Husband, First-born Child. Smiles Are For Youth. For Old Age Come Death's Terror And Delirium.

Courage Is No Good: It Means Not Scaring Others. Being Brave Lets No One Off The Grave. Death Is No Different Whined At Than Withstood.

Never Such Innocence, Never Before Or Since, As Changed Itself To Past Without A Word--the Men Leaving The Gardens Tidy, The Thousands Of Marriages Lasting A Little While Longer: Never Such Innocence Again.

Dear, I Can't Write, It's All A Fantasy: A Kind Of Circling Obsession.

I Don't Think I Write Well - Just Better Than Anyone Else.