A Singing Accomplishment

I

We would be sleeping now

if it were up to sleep

we can never get enough of it

(the evidence lies around

in beds freshly unmade

and in graves)

the last light has gone down

on the last house on the block

the last door has excused itself

and swung to its jamb

In the rest of the neighborhood

Dylan Thomas is dead

but here he is only drunk

and growling something

as we sit up talking

and suddenly it occurs to me

that someday we will end like this

in midsentence

and suddenly it occurs to you

that we should take a drive

that we should cut the top off the car

so the stars

II

I wish I had met you

early on,

before school

before the friends

and the boys

to come

Maybe if we had been together

early on,

in an older neighborhood

while we were learning

slowly to speak

III

Wind blows clothes on the line

but no shirt rips and no coat tears

spouses have affairs but no spouse tears

no hearts hang broken

she lights another cigarette

but it’s not smoking

and you have to wonder what the purpose is

you have to wonder how the moon

now painfully round

came to lose its edges

when it was the rain stopped making a sound

when it hit

you have to wonder if there are any words left

jagged enough

to tear the air

the shirt

the heart

and reveal

The piano player plays a vague accompaniment

to stammer through one honest word

would be a singing accomplishment

1987