Let's be more specific. For instance, the brown paper bag. We must not say the night is black. Behind the night is what is black. The bag is candid and opaque. Consider the women with identical eyebrows, Humiliated in the market. Without a brown bag, Everyone knows their brands of napkin. And what of husbands if they are sent? They blush at the check-out girl, The boys in white aprons. How can they face the streets home? But give them a brown paper bag, Everyone thinks they've bought an ant farm Or a box of soap. Mystery joins things together: Potatoes and oranges, Lots of oranges, A few potatoes. A loaf of bread is friendly as a school bus When swaddled in brown paper. Which brings to mind All the embarrassments We'll never fit into a small mysterious bag. And we are diminished for this. 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...VARIATIONS: 15 by CONRAD AIKEN YOUTH IMPERTURBABLE by CONRAD AIKEN CONTRA MORTEM: THE CHILD by HAYDEN CARRUTH CONTRA MORTEM: THE LEAVES by HAYDEN CARRUTH MIDSUMMER BIRDS by ROBERT FROST AFTER THE PAPAGO by JAMES GALVIN DEVASTATION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON |