1318: Saint Matthew and All | William Stafford
"Saint Matthew and All"
William Stafford
Lorene-we thought she’d come home. But
it got late, and then days. Now
it has been years. Why shouldn’t she,
if she wanted? I would: something comes
along, a sunny day, you start walking;
you meet a person who says, “Follow me,”
and things lead on.
Usually, it wouldn’t happen, but sometimes
the neighbors notice your car is gone, the
patch of oil in the driveway, and it fades.
They forget.
In the Bible it happened-fishermen, Levites.
They just went away and kept going. Thomas,
away off in India, never came back.
But Lorene-it was a stranger maybe, and he
said, “Your life, I need it.” And nobody else did.
On this day in...
2010: "Even if I now saw you" by Izumi Shikibu
2009: "Her Long Illness" by Donald Hall
2008: "[Untitled]" by Marilyn Hacker
2007: Weekend, no poem
everything glorious is around/us already
William Stafford
Lorene-we thought she’d come home. But
it got late, and then days. Now
it has been years. Why shouldn’t she,
if she wanted? I would: something comes
along, a sunny day, you start walking;
you meet a person who says, “Follow me,”
and things lead on.
Usually, it wouldn’t happen, but sometimes
the neighbors notice your car is gone, the
patch of oil in the driveway, and it fades.
They forget.
In the Bible it happened-fishermen, Levites.
They just went away and kept going. Thomas,
away off in India, never came back.
But Lorene-it was a stranger maybe, and he
said, “Your life, I need it.” And nobody else did.
On this day in...
2010: "Even if I now saw you" by Izumi Shikibu
2009: "Her Long Illness" by Donald Hall
2008: "[Untitled]" by Marilyn Hacker
2007: Weekend, no poem
everything glorious is around/us already