Poetry 365

In our obscure life, for instance, how easy
it is to turn from the masters falling into the sea.
No doubt they were amazing—
the whiteness of their legs in the green water!—
but it is not an important failure.
The living eat a cold peach
delicious from the refrigerator or
cleanse the intricate joints of an engine
in pure gasoline, and its vapors rise
like barely visible snakes
finally lost in the sun.
It is also good
to teach a child to sing
with words or without,
to love and afterwards
go slowly hand in hand
for a swim in the astringent ocean.