Green of Mildew and of Verdigris

Jane Miller

Phosphor of night-cloud, old salt-freighter
sailing between sleep and wake
what was it
you said we couldn't be
eternal about

Summer leaves
hitting the window
undulations with gold-dust and brick-dust

yellow of field and fence
days of October lily
nights of algae and thrush

how animal
human eyes are
putting the ceremony back
where it belongs

Love is the best of the legend
part of a dream we live
beard-of-a-bald-man night
heavy with particulars

and russet days
whose every minute is the same
small explosions like good-bye
so that you will know me

Daily we bury the body
whose heart hasn't felt
each boat depart for nothing
sails of metal and file

On a sea of hinges
we stop our grief in the middle
to work, what we are here for

very mouth, very window, very sky

University of Virginia Virginia Quarterly Review
5 Boar's Head Place
PO Box 400223
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903-3237
ISSN 2154-6932