| 1. She gave you a list. What were the first three items? | 1.Woods to go to, the fish-shaped leaves of lilies, well water with its arc of rust. |
| 2. What windows did you cover? What doors were boarded up against the bitter winter? |
2. There were no windows. Every door hung open. |
| 3. Did a phoebe call out fee-bee? Did the mockingbird say your name? |
3. I heard a name but it was not my name. I heard a name but it was only an echo. |
| 4. Was it only a flesh wound? Did anyone suffer? | 4. Are there other kinds of wounds? I am not tired of happiness. |
| 5. What was the song that the heart learned to whistle? Did the bell have a tongue? What did you know about silence, before you fell through the clear sky air? |
5. Only the lub-dub of the body’s river, pushing and pulling, the daily wave of flotsam and jetsam. I knew a different kind of quiet. |
| 6. And what was left in the knapsack, in the abandoned basket at the lakeshore, after Summer burned like a yellow thread into Autumn? |
6. The ribs of an umbrella that no longer opens. A gold ring from a woman’s ear. This book, which I’ll close, when your voice grows faint and my ear turns toward another story. |
