Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PERPETUAL MOTION by THOMAS MCGRATH

First Line: ONE, ONE
Last Line: Live all alone
Subject(s): SOLITUDE; LONELINESS;
One, one
Lives all alone,
Shape of the body's
Tree of bone.

Two, two
Can make the world do;
In youth, in youth,
But not in truth.

Three, three
And the body tree
Fades in the forest
Of company.

Three, three
Society,
Will do, will do,
But not for two

Since two, two
In love, withdraw;
Wish to be one,
To live alone,

But all must come
To the skeleton,
And one and one
Live all alone.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org


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