RED THREAD

Ash-home. Sack of delicious apples.

Roof of mouth is keen but quiet now.

How is it I did not know the swath

Of you, rare, more rare.

Whole family decimated

                         As if in war.

Old wheat, color of ransack or curlew,

Jews wandering, coppering, each

In their croft. The pond, iced-over now,

Thinner yet for skating. Inside, a man

In his smoking jacket, smoking,

Withholding. Silvering of hair, most

Exigent of needs. In a vase, the red dust

Of gillyflowers aslant by the bed.

Thou shalt not be dead.

                         Last hour

Loving was the first one,

Cruciate as the wings of a dragonfly, at rest.