When the furnace wakes, though,
all
afternoon
Their witless offspring flock like piped rats to its siren
Crescendo, and agape on the crumbling ridge
Stand
in
a row and learn.
GRANDMOTHER AND GRANDSON
As
I hear it, now when there is company
'Always the spindly granddam, stuck standing
In her comer like a lady clock long
Silent, out of some hole
in
the talk
Is apt to clack cup, clatter teeth, and with
Saucer gesturing to no one special,
Shake out her paper voice concerning
That pimply boy her last grandson: "Now who,
Who does he remind you of?"
(Who stuffs there
With cake his puffed face complected half
Of yellow crumbs, his tongue loving over
His damp hands to lick the sticky
From bitten fingers; chinless;
all
boneless but
His neck and nose; and who now rolls
his
knowing
Eyes to their attention. )
In vain, in vain,
One after the other, their lusterless
Suggestions of faint likenesses; she
Nods at none, her gaze absent and more
'Absent, as though watching for someone through
A frosted window, until they are aware
She has forgotten her own question.
When he
is
alone, though, with only her
And her hazy eyes in the whole house
