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| Midday Passage, Chaim Soutine, c. 1919 |
The least thing
can make the present hold
can make the past a cancelled season
A man shaking out a match
smoke rising in ribbons
candles burning on the cabin desk
The woods around him
dark and glittering
in a sun-splashed mountain breeze
The sound of it
an envelope of hush and quiver
the calm of it
childhood's healing quiet
Middays after school
deep in goldenrod he'd cross
the fallow field toward the trees
before his peace was broken
Both his working parents due
in the house's white confinement
one in a rant of slights and grievances
one long-suffering to create supper
And stay until he found once more
in the shelter of the trees
the courage to go home.
