The otherwise beautiful girl With eyes closed Is not exactly sleeping. A reverie of dust obscures the photographs, Endures the unendurable furniture. If not to wake her, If not, softly, To ask what is left Under this last, most oceanic circumstance, The relatives lean in one by one, As if she might tell them How it is. Her ears are more like seashells now, Where those who loved her Bend to listen, listen, And move on, The same as if they heard and understood. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A MEDITATION ON RHODE ISLAND COAL by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT SONNET: 13. OUT OF CATALLUS by GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS YOUTH AND CUPID by ELIZABETH I THE HOMECOMING by THOMAS HARDY COMPOSED BY THE SEA-SIDE NEAR CALAIS [AUGUST 1802] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE CROSS; TO THE MOTHERS OF THE MARTYRED DEAD UPON FIELD OF BATTLE by JOSEPHINE TURCK BAKER THE CONCLUSION OF A LETTER TO THE REV. MR. C --. by MARY BARBER |