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CAT'S CRADLE

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Contents

I. CAT'S CRADLE......................................1What, not awake?.....................................3The Feast............................................4Apricots.............................................5Mi Tierra............................................6I am coal............................................7Your Beginning.......................................8Love is..............................................9Love Song............................................10These arms...........................................11Starfish.............................................12Love Song II.........................................13That Summer..........................................14P.M..................................................15Image................................................16Your words...........................................17The Early Park.......................................18Nights...............................................20Child................................................21You Slipped From Me..................................22Clouds Over Labrador.................................23September............................................245 a.m................................................25I Said I Think It Is A Good Poem.....................26Take Them............................................27Dominoes.............................................28Stay.................................................29I'll Be An Open Field................................30Thinking.............................................31Language.............................................32You Ran..............................................33Under Ashes..........................................34Echoes...............................................35Lies.................................................37Cat's Cradle.........................................38When It Was All Said.................................39Damn Fool............................................40II. JOHN'S LEAP......................................41John's Leap..........................................43El Hacedor...........................................44Leaving Handel.......................................46Mourning Picture.....................................48Alice................................................49The Ritual...........................................51The Adversary........................................52Digging..............................................53Two Weeks............................................54David In Taos........................................55Child Play...........................................56Lost Angel...........................................57To M, Aging..........................................59The Popcorn Vendor...................................61The Visit............................................63Mourning E...........................................65Choose...............................................66Sepia................................................67September 11th.......................................68Bill Hanson..........................................71The Chosen...........................................73For Victor, dying....................................74To W.R. Wilkins on Ken Sleight.......................75Victor...............................................76Soldier..............................................77Moving Targets.......................................78Joel At The Beach....................................80III. THE PAINTED ARK.................................81Fat squirrel.........................................83The Painted Ark......................................84Pile Of Thin Bones...................................86Sleep, Tiger.........................................87Pears................................................88Death Of A White Bear................................89High Meadow..........................................90Berries..............................................92River Of Cloud.......................................93Hawk.................................................94Blue Heron...........................................95Reading Aspen........................................97Koi..................................................98Spent Poppies........................................100Invasion.............................................101Damn, The King Snake.................................102A Gift Of Amber......................................103Dachshund Morning....................................104Tapestry.............................................105Laps To Extinction...................................106As At Comfort........................................107

Chapter One

What, not awake? My touch has been too light.

You woke me with a glance, yesterday.

      THE FEAST

    What went wrong? Carefully,
    carefully
    the cloth was laid,
    smooth but for two folds, two
    low ridges, face to face,

    then the knife,
    polished,
    polite,

    and the waiting bread.


      APRICOTS

    She
    brought him apricots
    even in winter
    when the fruit was small,

    sometimes
    walking two miles for them,
    letting them ripen
    slowly
    in a north window.

    He thought,
    tasting the fragrant
    sungold skin,
    like hers, they
    were always in season.


      MI TIERRA

    The man with the hat and I
    sat side by side.
    We played a game
    with our eyes, with our hands,
    without names,
    In a place with a Spanish name.

    The man with the hat and I
    sat under a starry sky,
    not real, the stars weren't real
    on a ceiling painted blue
    in a place with a Spanish name.
    They were part of the game.

    If you lose your hat somewhere
    and go back and look
    and it isn't there,
    but you find another, not the same,
    do you take it?
    A hat that's not the same?

    I am coal

    Your breath
    ignites me,
    even from so great a distance,

    your gaze consumes it.

    And all the mirrors in the spinning
    room look on
    with envy, laughing.

...