When I was in college I wrote
Any number of poems in which Death and I
Were close friends. In some we rode motorcycles;
(He'd trouble keeping his robe from getting tangled;
The wind blew his cowl back as we sped along.)
In others we wandered or looked for work
Or called each other on the phone or had fights.
I haven't written like that in years
Content to deal with younger Deaths,
Either children or young businessmen
Who'd feel ridiculous holding a scythe.
Ono No Komachi, standing by the river,
Informs the air that the spring rains
Are three weeks over-due.
The Master of Rain smacks his head,
Saying "Fool of an Immortal!"
My Grandfather Joe returned
From the Great War with a stranger's shadow.
It mimicked him fairly well but sometimes.
Lost in thought, would keep on imitating
Some gesture after Joe had finished.
It didn't speak a word of Yiddish until Mabel,
Joe's sister-in-law, taught it a few commands
Nemt di fis arop funem tish! Take your feet off the table!
Es nisht di kats esn! Don't eat the cat's food!
Her aoyf tsu pruvn makhn di tsayt loyfn tsuri!
Stop trying to make Time run backwards!
At sea, the galley slaves were fed
But on land they fed themselves
Hauling, lifting, pushing or selling
Things made from broken oars --
Jacob's ladders, spheres, lidded boxes,
Model ships or joint-limbed figurines
With expressions that changed
Each time you looked at them.
He sits down on a log that will,
In a few minutes, be part of the pyre
On which he'll burn and takes off his coat .
After shaking out the wrinkles
He folds it neatly and sets it down.
Corvids or corvidae are
Oscine passerine birds including
Crows, ravens, jays, grackles,
Rooks, magpies, jackdaws,
Treepies, choughs and nutcrackers
And, on certain days, me.
I then speak grackle flawlessly;
Get by in crow, raven and jay (I have
Only a few words of treepie but who
Wants to talk much with treepies?)
I display, sometimes, an almost human intelligence
And the ability to use simple tools.
My father had three jobs so he rarely
Had time to watch an entire ball game;
He'd turn on the tv late to watch an inning
Or two, reassured that the great game of which
Every game was a part continued.
