A Winter Day

THOMAS CLARK

A WINTER DAY

A winter day, thirty degrees

in the sun, cold

sunset. To say

a flower in a glass

is like the sun, begs

the sufferance of the thing, the

sun. It has been so many times

compared. Instead

to say

today, a winter day

we brought home a willow spray,

put it in a glass,

studied the setting out

of its branches.

Thread and fold of the willow,

thin cloth drawing off

your hips and breasts

as you stooped to touch the glass,

and a sufferance

argued, in your eye

suffering my eye to follow.