Cardinals at the feeder.
Rain in the leaves.

From deepest darkness to
The lesser I emerged with the words

I don’t believe

Immediately in my mouth.
I didn’t speak.

•

Yellow leaves,
Red berries.
Berries

Of my childhood strung
On a slender branch.
From what immensity did they

Emerge, what context,
What scene?

I tried
To read me.
Propped myself

Against the pillow.
Moved my lips.

•

If you bring it forth,
What is within you

Will save you.
What is not within you—

•

Hair on the pillow.
Voices in the leaves.

I asked in what—

They said in you in you in you in you—

I was capable
Of speaking truth. I had

The truth but
Nothing to put it in.

Rain in the leaves.
A company
Passing invisible.

Don’t ask why.

•

For twenty years I lived in the present.
Then, in a single night,
I became a shade.

Books, paintings
On the wall,
Words in my mouth but no

Memory, no need.
I listened

To the cardinals.
Happiness without reason.
Yellow leaves.