Selected Poems from FIRST WINTER RAIN

1 My wordless neighbor Working long after dark Burying his old hound The shovel biting the dirt Like a falling ax 16 Before the race The dirt track being raked The rig rattling Behind a swayback horse Remembering thunder 40 Leaving home Without your blessing Forgive me, Father This headwind Is a cold cruel knife 49 Intensive care All the chirping monitors Inconsolable Song of the cicadas Rising to a deaf moon

63 Glistening seaweed Pulses on the waves In damp tendrils Your red-honey hair Soft on my cheek 73 After the raid We bury our dead In the burnt melon field The littlest graves Take the longest to dig 91 Moving house— There, under my desk, Your lost photo Smiling in sweet ignorance Of cruel days ahead 121 Hours before dawn Drinking vodka on the porch While others sleep I turn off the light And give the moth a break from First Winter Rain © 2009 Denis M. Garrison