Level

at last only by deep concentration

& by the conversations we fear might be running down,

can be understood? Formerly we noticed experience.

It did not accurately repeat,

but our latest responses are now generalized.

Now that image in its familiarity takes care of you.

Another surprise: courage is not a requirement,

because this new expansiveness, seeming always

to be a living extension of itself, only requires

your presence; the slight pressure of your body.

But it is not all reassuring, this comfort,

for you belong to it. The world, & your small love for it,

floats like the talk of the adults, & is barely mutable:

now you will feel a nostalgia for it;

no longer will you consciously alter its events.

& friendship, & companionship, faces of young students

which after the immediate pleasures of consent

had settled into composure, always refreshing your life,

must change value now; will be less quick & lovelier.

After a long time & if you again become articulate

or can listen generously, it can be given to you

to be provident, though this is at the mercy of love

among other dependencies, & is not assured.

IN SEPIA

Often you walked at night, houselights made

nets of their lawns, your shadow

briefly over them. You had been talking about

Death, over & over. Often

you felt dishonest, though certainly some figure

moved in the dark yards, a parallel

circumstance, keeping pace. By Death, you meant

a change of character: He is

a step ahead, interlocutor, by whose whisper

the future parts like water,