The List
Branches shiver as if a wand
transformed them
into wands themselves,
the way our friends
become poplars
planted in their memory—
Steven Clover, Lon Scott,
Franco Palumbo,
jeweler, banker, chef.
There’s no rest from the list
that grows each morning
as we face the sun
with a cool look
like we can handle
the digging and burying,
that we don’t see every limb
on every tree
as a wing cut from flight.
