Tercet

Parable of the Eagle

An eagle egg fell into a farmer’s chicken shed

and when it hatched the farmer gave it chicken feed

even though he was the king of birds. The farmer

 

clipped the eaglet’s princely beak and raised him

as a chicken. When he grew large, wildlife control

called on the farm. “It has the heart of an eagle,”

 

said the public...

David Alexander

39

Oliver Sacks is going to die,

He tells us blithely in the New York Times.

He’s 81. His liver’s shot.

 

He’s blind in one eye

Though when both worked fine

He could still get lost in a parking lot.

 

He’s extremely famous and terribly shy.

He’s lost his leg but it's still attached.

He’s been...

Sarah Tolmie
b. 1971

Cowboy Story

The books sit on the shelf, a row of coma patients

in a ward, a series of selves no longer able to learn

and trapped at the point of injury: the last page.

 

At the donor clinic I offer my arm to the spigot

of the needle and think, as I see the bag fill

with blood, there goes some of me. But that’s a lie:

 

as...

George Murray
b. 1971

Sonoma

He totaled his blue truck —

slowly spun out on an icy bridge,

rammed it into a guard rail.

 

Climbed out unbruised.

Coal Creek. Middle of nowhere.

A passing couple brought him home.

 

Then three years

with letters from the Motor Vehicle Department

before he relinquished his license.

 

...

Jane Munro
b. 1943

Money

Coin Exhibit, British Museum.

 

Their misshapenness strikes the table in tiny splashes,

like still-cooling splatters of silver. Stater and shekel,

mina and obol. Persia’s bullion had a lion and bull.

 

Athens an owl, Messana a hare, a jar for Terone, Melos

a pomegranate. Call it museum money, written...

Carmine Starnino
b. 1970

Chinese Chimes: Nine Detours of the Yellow River

you are unaware of your obscure sources

but you are explicitly sure of the vast sea

as your final destination

 

you always frown with your brownish wrinkles

but you prefer a nonprofessional smile on your face

your only luggage of life

 

...

Changming Yuan
b. 1957

One Art

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

 

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of...

Elizabeth Bishop
1911-1979

War

In my body flows the blood of Gallic

Bastille stormers and the soft, gentle

ways of Salish/Cree womanhood.

 

Deep throated base tones dissipate,

swallowed by the earth;...

Lee Maracle
b. 1950

Death of a Young Son by Drowning

He, who navigated with success

the dangerous river of his own birth

once more set forth

 

on a voyage of discovery

into the land I floated on

but could not touch to claim.

 

His feet slid on the bank,

the currents took him;

he swirled with ice and trees in the swollen water

 

and...

Margaret Atwood
b. 1939

The House on the Hill

They are all gone away,

The House is shut and still,

There is nothing more to say.

Through broken walls and gray

The winds blow bleak and shrill;

They are all gone away.

Nor is there one today

To speak them good or ill:

...

Edwin Arlington Robinson
1869-1935

A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky

A boat, beneath a sunny sky,

Lingering onward dreamily

In an evening of July —

Children three that nestle near,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Pleased a simple tale to hear —

Long has paled that sunny sky:

Echoes fade and memories die:

Autumn frosts have slain July.

...

Lewis Carroll
1832-1898