LXXXVIII

A Final Sonnet

For Chris

 

How strange to be gone in a minute!     A man

Signs a shovel and so he digs     Everything

Turns into writing a name for a day

                                    Someone

is having a birthday and someone is getting

married and someone is telling a joke     my dream

a white tree     I dream of the code of the west

But this rough magic I here abjure     and

When I have required some heavenly music     which even now

I do     to work mine end upon their senses

That this aery charm is for     I'll break

My staff     bury it certain fathoms in the earth

And deeper than did ever plummet sound

I'll drown my book.

It is 5:15 a.m.                 Dear Chris, hello.