STONE WALL

The sign is over there. It says: A CLASS
ON REBUILDING STONE WALLS. Now, I’m a stone.
My wall has long since crumbled, overthrown
By frosts and thaws. We lie a tumbled mass.

No Frostian neighbors came to keep us mended.
For me it’s not a fall from grace, but from
An artificial equilibrium.
Stones are earthy. How can we pretend

We like this raising to naked impediments?
I was content, the field my resting-place,
Earth below and turf around, my face
To the sun. My interlude as stone fence

Is marked in passing decades, centuries;
My long life is [millennial] gravities.

(161, November 3, 1994)

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