The Longing for Eternal Life
1 Tonight, after a rain
2 the insects' song comes washing clear
3 in air worn cool, so thin
4 I can hear the traffic
5 lights a block away clicking
6 and the faintest inclination of car wheels
7 bending right or left into dim streets.
8 My porch lamp beams on gourds
9 swelling by starlight,
10 groping slowly across the string.
11 Why is it hard to live like this,
12 simply to live?
13 Far off, on a highway dark as ocean water
14 woodchucks paddle across the road
15 to pass into eternal life.
16 I force myself to rest, unfold both fists,
17 and hear a weary tick-tick-tick---
18 the ambitious moth
19 testing her heart against the light.
[from The Fire Music (1986): University of Pittsburgh Press]
Copyright © 1986, Liz Rosenberg.
Reproduced for personal use only: do not circulate.