Two Poems

 
 I wiped the last men from my shelves

I didn't know I was already done with
              gathering unto

jackets and books and even an aroma
I dragged across the century

collecting dust and some tacky film
trinkets of a life            I threw away

everything I had and knew
and even some of the things I liked

but oh I could never throw
away a thing I love

nothing I have loved
has been that light

 

          * * *

I do so love a sad red barn

the lassitude of a bar
of soap

                empty pat
of butter on the stair

a lasting warm remark

like a country mouse
with its tail in its mouth

I fall asleep in the field
with my hand around my throat

to suffer lilies alone
confusing my own smell

for the pasture

 

--Stella Corso