ABSTRACT
* Five cutouts, five silhouettes Against the American twilight; the year Is 1941; remembered names —Rosendale, Perry and Smith— Rise like dust in the deaf air; The tops spin, the poison swells in the arm: The trees in their jade death-suits, The birds with their opal feet, Shimmer and weave on the shoreline; The moths, like forget-me-nots, blow Up from the earth, their wet teeth Breaking the dark, the raw grain; The lake in its cradle hums The old songs: out of its ooze, their heads Like tomahawks, the turtles ascend And settle back, leaving their chill breath 473In blisters along the bank; Locked in their wide drawer, the pike lie still as knives.
