Note to the Reader

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      observing his progress through glasses that moments before

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      Thank you. We hope you enjoy these poems.

       This e-book edition was created through a special grant provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Copper Canyon Press would like to thank Constellation Digital Services for their partnership in making this e-book possible.

       To absent friends

      As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on.

      2 Kings 2:6

      Contents

        Title Page

        Note to the Reader

      1  I

      1  Two Men on an Errand

      2  110th Birthday

      3  Near a Mall

      4  Splitting an Order

      5  An Incident

      6  Bad News

      7  Swinging from Parents

      8  Potatoes

      9  At Arby’s, at Noon

      10  A Meeting after Many Years

      11  The Rollerblader

      12  In a Gift Shop

      13  Changing Drivers

      14  Snapshot

      15  Two

      16  While We Were Passing

      17  Gabardine

      18  The Woman Whose Husband Was Dying

      1  II

      1  Estate Sale

      2  Opossum

      3  A Backyard Fish Pool

      4  A Visitant at Five A.M.

      5  A Jonathan in Spring

      6  Dead Bat

      7  Sundial

      8  Birdhouse

      9  Tree Frog

      10  Lantern

      11  Dead Fly

      12  Garrison, Nebraska

      13  A Mouse in a Trap

      14  A Wasp’s Nest

      15  Tree Removal

      16  Barn Swallows

      17  Zinc Lid

      1  III

      1  At a Kitchen Table

      2  A Morning in Early Spring

      3  Closing the Windows

      4  The Past

      5  Sleep Apnea

      6  First Marriage

      7  Grandfather

      8  Howard

      9  Deep Winter

      10  New Moon

      11  Hands in the Wind

      12  Spanish Lessons

      13  Painting the Barn

      14  Those Summer Evenings

      15  Awakening

      16  A Person of Limited Palette

      1  IV

      1  Small Rooms in Time

      2  Right Hand

      Splitting an Order

I