big muse
                                        big time
                                        little muse
                                        all the time


I: Walking out of the World

Like the long hill
And at the top
I stand quite still


II: In the Mouth

Teeth to which other teeth were fixed
Teeth on which other teeth were hung
Are drawn and gone and leave unmixed
A total triumph to the tongue.


III: As per Contract

East wind and icy moon and still you smile.
Poems silenced, worlds destroyed; I know my place
in the void, my way in the dark. And still I see your face
Smiling as you smiled; not gentle in dismissal.


IV: Grown-Ups

We know now how they watched
From a seat in the evening shade
...