THE GRATE

Over time, those sharing the steam grate

Where St. Jerome sleeps on cold nights

Have become minor variants. Their Latin

Has an Illyrian lilt. Wrens and cats

Keep track of them. They’re working,

When sober, on translating

Silent certainties into quiet doubts.

ON INNIS BOFFIN

Because they are so very old
Adam and Eve have become birds
On the island of Innis Boffin.
Since this is part of Ireland
There are no serpents. Adam
Has given some thought
To being human once more
But wishes he could run his plan
By Satan whose advice always
Led to interesting results. Eve,
Though, refuses to travel.





T.F. Thistleton Dyer feels that the birds which used to be Adam and Eve are eagles. This strikes me as unlikely. Wrens or herons, perhaps. Quite possibly. a pair of sooty shearwaters -- a species which has been known to go insane and allegedly inspired Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.  Just thought you'd like to know.