("River-marsh-drowse...")

THREE POEMS

I

River-marsh-drowse

and in flood

moonlight

gives sight

of no land.

They fish, a man

takes his wife to town

with his rowboat's 10-horse

ships his voice

to the herons.

Sure they drink

-full foamy folk-

till asleep.

The place is asleep

on one leg in the weeds.

U

Prosperity is poverty-

T've foreclosed.

I own again

these walls thin

as the back

of my writing tablet.

And more:

all who live here-

card table to eat on,

broken bed-

sacrifice for less

than art.

m

Now in one year

a book published

and plumbing-

took a lifetime

to weep

a deep

trickle

Structure

38 lines · 9 stanzas