TO THE KOROMO RIVER

 

Riding by

Yoshitone glanced

In a pond.

His reflection

Stayed there

Hiding

Among the weeds.

In the forest

His shadow

​Lost itself

In pieces 

Too small to reassemble.

JOINING THE ARMY OF THE DEFEATED EMPEROR

 

I believe it went something like this:

The Ming Emperor has killed himself

His adherents -- few enough and growing fewer 

Trail in a long line away from the capital,

Joined by some who'd fought for the other side

But are moved by the sight of the Emperor's ghost

Wringing its hands and weeping. A soldier

Perhaps Chow Chu, sees, centuries off,

Someone reading about him and says

"One of us, I think? Come along!" and so

My father finds himself a partisan of

The most lost of all lost causes.

SUMMER

 

Auguste sleeps on a bench

In the garden. Köbes the crow

Drops on him leaves and small branches

Until he is satisfactorily hidden.

HER EARLY YEARS

 

When Esther was young she and her sister 

Somehow decided that Esther would be

The practical one and Irene would go on

Looking beautiful, playing her violin and 

Making what looked like people 

Out of smoke of which there was a lot

In Lemberg, stored there because 

If the war came there'd be a shortage

And a smart man with a warehouse 

Full of smoke could make a thaler or two.

Esther was 14 when she began working

In a cigarette factory and became 

A timekeeper and might have made a career 

There but the factory burned down;

This wasn't, she said, a bit funny since

It put her out of a job. She asked Irina

For a turn being the pretty, musical one

But Irene said no and Esther married Max.

IN ROME

 

A minimally-staffed door needs

At least three gods. If there's a key

It needs a god too. Windows,

Have no gods and fend for themselves

SUFFRAGE

My mother's death drops by to say
She'll be twenty this year and next year
When she's old enough to vote
She means to vote for dead candidates
Since they'll understand that death
Is serious business and not to be trusted lightly
To strangers and children. I tell her the voting age
Is now eighteen; she could have voted last year
She says "Why didn't you tell me? Now
I'll just have to vote twice."

GRACE'S LETTER TO THEODORA

 

Is so long it can afford to spend several pages

Describing a new-made dress which has 

A deep bottom ruffle, about 12 inches wide

A narrow ruffle and a gathered ruffle

Almost as wide as the bottom one.

The overskirt has a mourning roll of velvet and folds

Of velvet and silk. The sleeves, cut open

Almost to the elbow, are decorated with Malta lace.

There's a black bow in front and one in back

And many, many buttons. Theodora

Might have the same dress made so she and Grace

Can be twins unless Theodora (who will soon

Decide to be Sarah instead) would rather be twins

With Bessie Winthrop, who has a new fringed velvet dress

Though fringes aren't cheap and black velvet costs the earth.