The Severed Garden
(from An American Prayer)

They are coming to take us into the Severed Garden
Do you know how pale and wanton thrillful comes Death
On a strange hour; unannounced and unplanned for,
Like a scaring, overfriendly guest you've brought to bed?
Death makes angels of us all and gives us wings
Where we had shoulders smooth as ravens' claws
No more money, no more fancy dress
This other Kingdom seems by far the best
Until its other jaw reveals incest and loose obedience to a vegetable law
I will not go
Prefer a Feast of Friends
To the Giant Family

The future is unclear and
The end is always near.

All poems have woves, all but one; the most beautiful one of all...

"I hope you go out smiling,
Like a child, in the cool remnant
Of a dream."