Elegy on a Bookmark
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i.m. Philip Levine (1928-2015)
I
He gave me his house for the term, loaned mea graying car, a stick to prop open the trunk. I met the sump pumpand the gardener who hated each fallen leaf.
At the ghost of a breeze, a wind chime shuddered, having seen a cloud. Where?Oh, that rag sinking behind a mountain blurred with distance.Thirsty heat dug the valley deeper.
Within the house, books shored up the walls. Oh, bookmarks,how long at attention had you stood? Did you flagwhat he came back for or had abandoned?
II
The living tell the dead, “Go ahead.We’ll catch up.” We lie. [End Page 516]
DEBORA GREGER is Professor Emerita, University of Florida, and Poet-in-Residence, Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida. By Herself appeared in 2012. In Darwin’s Room will be published by Penguin in 2017. Her art has appeared on the covers of books and literary journals for thirty years.
