(2001)
There is an even-handed justice in… No senility forgiven, but caught a… Blood and flesh, bone and marrow To feed the life of another, And back to the earth that gave it…
Many times, my father, drunk upon… “Spare the rod and spoil the child… Swung his belt and lay the stripes… To cleanse my soul. And I, drunk upon memory and whis…
Suppose you was 18 years old And never had a single thing In all your life to call yours alo… Except your body and your face? And suppose you went to work
I saw their faces as clearly as if… on their stones beneath their name… heard their voices in the trees whose roots go deep into their dus… and into the dust of this Island
see them standing in glass houses clutching stones of fear anxiety suits and shoes boots and jeans makeup and hair powdered and perfumed
All I wanted to do was ride my mo… And make out at Spooner’s Point. But when Mary Daley got pregnant Her father threatened me with the… So I married her and went to work
little lies, seeds of thyme shallow-rooted, often sewn cover the largest stone yet a tree springs from a single seed
wind tangled trees coiling across a yellow moon spiraling leaves surf-curled dunes
Tide tickling sun’s wake Under a thin skin of ice Beach disappearing
I am a rock on the shore of the magnificent ocean millions of years by the magnificent ocean and millions more
my real name was Clarence but they always called me Dummy because they thought I was stupid I lived with my Mom and swept up… for a dollar a day ‘cause
come sit beneath my branches and read to me from dead poets for I am old all texture and symmetry a conspiracy of cocoons
The taste of winter ice Dug in August from the sawdust Of Conley’s ice house The slap of the screen door On Grammy’s porch
Pappa always told me that you should never tell all you… and I found it to be good advice I recall the time I got back from… with my winter stores back in ‘39
she watches him as if the fault were in her eyes poor shorn Sampson withered hands grip the canes that barely hold the frail reflect…