Michael McClintock
 
                                                    
                                                

                                                  such was their power,
                                                  I lost all sense of time,
                                                  reading old poems . . .
                                                  journeying into morning
                                                  high in Chinese mountains



                                                  closing my book-- -
                                                  I note how the clock has moved
                                                  remorselessly away
                                                  from the time the day was whole
                                                  and I was immortal



                                                  once I was young
                                                  and once at Lake Okeechobee
                                                  spring arrived
                                                  winter-thin and very late
                                                  with an ibis in the willow



                                                  sometime
                                                  during the day
                                                  the shining haze
                                                  left this empty field
                                                  faintly green



                                                  to remind me
                                                  of the way things really are
                                                  in this world,
                                                  by the house I keep some pots
                                                  empty, to catch the rain



                                                  carefully winding
                                                  a forkful of ramen
                                                  around a pea
                                                  tonight is the longest
                                                  night of the year

 

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