scoured clean as marble, stark,
bare, there you will cease,
there you will abandon
like a child your old fond toys . . .
But wait just one moment -
clear eyes behind my eyes,
let's look together on these waves
immersed in shadow, emerging into sun
that in a moment
we'll never see again ...
Pallid, naked, almost numb, my own
small soul, if we can, let us pass
into this darkness, this limbo
of echoes, this nesting ground
for all the world's
orphaned words,
with open eyes."
JOHN PECK
Raina
Lulled on the placid silk
of an upside-down heaven
ringed by Austrian peaks,
she let the boat drift
and the big paint-flaking oars
slip out through the notched oarlocks.
Her little cousin prattled.
