The otherwise beautiful girl With eyes closed Is not exactly sleeping. A reverie of dust obscures the photographs, Endures the unendurable furniture. If not to wake her, If not, softly, To ask what is left Under this last, most oceanic circumstance, The relatives lean in one by one, As if she might tell them How it is. Her ears are more like seashells now, Where those who loved her Bend to listen, listen, And move on, The same as if they heard and understood. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON A LADY WHO FANCIED HERSELF A BEAUTY by CHARLES SACKVILLE (1637-1706) THE CHILD ALONE: 3. MY KINGDOM by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON EASTER DAY [IN ROME] by OSCAR WILDE THE FIRST-FOOT by ALEXANDER ANDERSON LEISTON ABBEY by BERNARD BARTON PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU; SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY by ROBERT BROWNING THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: THE FUGITIVE by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |