The frame of the house he lived in
supplied the wood for the gallows.
The floors where he walked were folded

At first light there are voices.
On the landing we can see
the parts on their heads.

Where I went to college in the purple valley of northwest Massachusetts, there was a fellow in my class who used to drag a brick around by a string. He called it his “pet brick.”

Uncle Gabe is a thoughtful man. We were out Christmas shopping together this season, & as I walked by a department store jammed with Yuletide shoppers, I saw the most remarkable woman waiting for a bus. She was splendid. Blonde, blue eyes, long legs, perfectly developed breasts...

I sit by the window all morning
watching the planes make final approaches.
Each of them gathers and steadies itself

Confused sentences sweep across
the windshield. Then nothing but white
commas exploding out of the night’s

The gift of clams is here, waiting
in the large bowl on the cutting table.
We are waiting: the clams

things are easily forgotten.
yesterday, i was surprised to find 
an ash burning its way 

Today’s lesson: a black river
which began in the northeast corner
of Utah struggled downward

You think of moving the captured submarine 
to a permanent berth alongside the museum
in your city. A retired engineer who spent