Richard W. Halperin
Even the dying light
Even the dying light is light. Even
Love’s last molecule before indifference
Begins is love. Even warped sense is sense.
Immense the nouns. Immense their tense. Years happen,
And adjectives wash away. At the end,
Not, I was happy; but, I was. Not, she
Was radiant; but, she. I, she, we—lovely
Without lovely. And adverbs—our big pretend:
He thought well, he thought dully; the miracle
Is, he thought. The miracle is, he wept;
Not he barely wept, or wretchedly. Who,
What, not when; is, loves, finds, not how—these buckle
The spectacle. Beautiful you, decrepit
You, is you. You! Even dead you is you.
Page(s) 16
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