"Head grossly normal. Abdomen distended"–
Then in the belly found the fresh germ clasping
Its knees, head humbly down. Sunlight fell
From a high window: words drift in, falling
Harmlessly on him. The broken heart's split
Tun is weighed, found wanting, drained. Twenty years
At study of the body. I have drawn it
So that the Mater Dolorosa holds
A sinewed pile of slumping bones, her son;
Coition studies where the fluids crash
In torrents , roll full, elemental floods,
And the womb is opened like a deep defile.
EDWIN M. ZIMMERMAN
Autumn Fibrillation
All night long the acorns fall.
They tap the roof, brush down
against the eaves like running mice,
then plop upon the slatted deck
hunting for a place to oak.
All night long I listen hard
but only hear the asymmetric
beats of tap, skitter, plop
that infect my heart until it goes
tap, skitter, plop all night.
I make myself a to-do list
to rectify my life: first off,
don't listen to the acorns fall;
sleep intensely all night long;
require the heart to keep its beat;
and let the summer go, assume
there will be many others.
