The Atlantic | January 2002 | Trapeze

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Contents | January 2002

In This Issue (Contributors)

More on poetry from The Atlantic Monthly.

Also by Deborah Digges:
Winter Barn (1998)

The Atlantic Monthly | January 2002

Trapeze

by Deborah Digges

.....

See how the first dark takes the city in its arms
and carries it into what yesterday we called the future.

Oh, the dying are such acrobats.
Here you must take a boat from one day to the next,

or clutch the girders of the bridge,
hand over hand.

But they are sailing like a pendulum between eternity
and evening, breathless, recovering,

balancing the air.
Who can tell at this hour seabirds from starlings,

wind from revolving doors or currents off the river?
Some are as children on the swings pumping higher
and higher.

Don't call them back, don't call them in for supper.
See they leave scuff marks like jet trails on the sky.

What do you think? Discuss this article in Post & Riposte.

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