When you were a little girl you lived on a street that went up a hill and down it again, which gave you from the be- ginning a sense of purpose, a glandular sympathy with the ebb and flow of all life. You weren’t easily fooled, even as a child of seven you looked at the butcher with grave 

After layoff in Richland after
moving into the 65-a-month prefab a
packing crate in an empty lot with

He strikes a match and she strikes a match;
these first two
go out before they can light the candle

was dead, face down
in the river, until I raised her
to air on the dock by her tangled

When he came home from the mines,
he went through the cellar; stripped
off his blackened work-clothes

The best footman’s good
at sweeping up your broken glass,
has a tear for every occasion, knows

The dog is seated by the victrola
listening, head cocked

to the voice of his master

 A man rents two bears. One of the bears wears a little blue fez; on his vest is his name: ‘Bruno.’ The other bear wears a red fez. His vest says ‘Hugo.’ The man takes the bears home with him.

Peekèd, they peer into the future.
They have unsteady bottoms to their ships,
eleven thousand sea-sick virgins

When our semi-conductor
Raised his baton, we sat there
Gaping at Marche Militaire,