I Must Be Living Twice:
New and Selected Poems (1975 - 2014)

from I Must Be Living Twice

WHAT TREE AM I WAITING

That whole part of the world

where I won’t go any-

more

that whole separation

that I won’t feel

high in this house

in this hemisphere

in this artificial light

that is artificial

in the earliest morning; dark

in pages and pens

in an unfamiliar bed

in the foot curl

furniture

each rumble

when morning comes

and it’s still morning

and it’s still night

I married a dead girl

we were born in her bloom

remember that fat bumblebee

landed on a lamp

I opened the doors

and I forgot and the house

got colder and colder

where is this house

the seam between boards

merely gains my attention

it’s dark and thin

I monitor each situation

my bladder growing full

climb down climb up

what tree am I waiting

my whole life in weather

waiting for my raft

I’ll fly to another island

I’ll take a train

already I know

it will hurt

this is the hurt country

I came here

to hold the hurt like a bird

like a tree

traffic has rings

we watch it whirl around

damaging our night

great continents hold

the feelings and the ages

what is mine

going blind

great masses of them

not going home

the country drew a line

because of memory

one said

I feel my heart race ahead

in eternity there is this ache

there is this wakefulness

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