In Wiry Winter

The shadow of a bird

upon the yard upon

a house: it's gone.

Through a pane a

beam like a warm hand

laid upon an arm.

A thin shell, trans-

parent, blue: the

atmosphere in which

to swim. Burr. A

cold plunge. The bird

is back. All the same,

to swim, plunging

upward, arms as wings,

into calm cold. Warm

within the act,

treading air, a

shadow on the yard.

Or floating, gliding.

a shadow on the roofs

and drives, in action

warm, the shadow cold

but brief. To swim

in air. No. Not in

this wiry winter air.

A beam comes in the

glass, a hand to

warm an arm. A hand

upon the glass

finds it a kind

of ice. The shadow

of a bird less cold.

From Collected Poems, Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Memoirous