FRAU VON STEIN, MY BROTHER'S KEEPER
Dreams you when madness rants or infidelities pour out;
Forgets you often starve to let
him
love
his
greed.
But does not see you're what his gluttony's about.
Richard Wilbur
.PITY
The following day was overcast, each street
A slow canal to float
him
to the place
Where he'd let fall the dear and staring face,
A funnel toward the thin reproachful tweet.
All day the starved canary called him back
In newsboy's whistle, crying of a tire,
Squeak of a squeegee, sirens finding fire,
Until the nightfall packed his head in black,
And he went back and climbed the stairs again,
Stepping across her body, freed the bird,
Which left its cage and out the window whirred
As
a bad thought out of a cracked brain.
549
