Alone, Jack Gilbert

[moireach.livejournal.com]

Alone
Jack Gilbert

I never thought Michiko would come back
after she died. But if she did, I knew
it would be as a lady in a long white dress.
It is strange that she has returned
as somebody's dalmatian. I meet
the man walking her on a leash
almost every week. He says good morning
and I stoop down to calm her. He said
once that she was never like that with
other people. Sometimes she is tethered
on the lawn when I go by. If nobody
is around, I sit on the grass. When she
finally quiets, she puts her head in my lap
and we watch each other's eyes as I whisper
in her soft ears. She cares nothing about
the mystery. She likes it best when
I touch her head and tell her small
things about my days and our friends.
That makes her happy the way it always did.

Comments

[synecdoche.livejournal.com]

I love this.

[tokio.livejournal.com]

That's very sweet.

I always wonder about this kind of thing.

[heddychaa.livejournal.com]

How honest and sad.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_chibiface/]

These poems about Michiko break my heart every time.

[lindyhoppr.livejournal.com]

Ditto

[mspixieears.livejournal.com]

There are more?!?!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_chibiface/]

Married

I came back from the funeral and crawled
around the apartment, crying hard,
searching for my wife's hair.
For two months got them from the drain,
from the vacuum cleaner, under the refrigerator,
and off the clothes in the closet.
But after other Japanese women came,
there was no way to be sure which were
hers, and I stopped. A year later,
reporting Michiko's avocado, I find
a long black hair tangled in the dirt.

:'(

[phoenixechoes.livejournal.com]

Every time I read that poem, it's like being punched in the emotional gut. I love it so much.

[inflightdata.livejournal.com]

God, both of those are sad and wonderful D:

[aimlesswanderer.livejournal.com]

This always reminds me of Jane Kenyon:

Finding a Long Gray Hair

I scrub the long floorboards
in the kitchen, repeating
the motions of other women
who have lived in this house.
And when I find a long gray hair
floating in the pail,
I feel my life added to theirs.

-- Jane Kenyon

./w

[thegreatxavier.livejournal.com]

wonderful

[writtenbyhand.livejournal.com]

I think I needed this today. Thank you.