From the current issue, Clarion 15, Fall 2011

"In Third Person"

a haze a heron in a tide-pool
and for a long time out of time
two children push a giant yellow globe

coyotes come and every June the same
the unrequited loneliness the same
out-of-tune expressions herons dance
the same blue wings
                           it all made sense
the way he asked me for the Book of Job
to make some pattern make some rhyme
out of his life before he die
the way he scrutinized his patterned robe

when he did die it's simply that he sensed
there was no more to do no other dance
to be composed no present tense

_ _

About the author. Maria Gapotchenko came to the United States from Russia in 1994. The themes of her writing seminars at Boston University are friendship and Russian literature.