The Widower

She left him in death's egg,

the bone sack & the gunny sack,

the bag of down & feathers-all black . . .

Somehow he couldn't get back.



It was night,

a night of shark-faced jets

winking brighter than blue stars,

a night of poisoned cities

mushrooming beneath the eyes of jets,

a night of missile silos

sulking in the desert,

a night of babies howling in the alleys,

a night of cats.



She left a death so huge

his life got lost in it.

She left a bloodstained egg

he had to hatch.