POEM
He was touched or he touched or
He was touched or he touched or
she did and was, or they were
and would. Or the room could, its
three doors, two windows or
the house on a slant touching,
touched by the drift down street, cars
pressing quick or slowing. All along
the town touched a river, the river
the filth falling through it. What was clean—
a source pure as rumor—a shore
touching lake touched by wind above,
and below, a spring. All touch blindly
further water. That blue touching
blacker regions in the sea so weirdly
solitary, each to under, to every
sideways past deeper, where nowhere.
Source: Poetry (February 2009).
This poem originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of Poetry.
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Marianne Boruch teaches at Purdue University and Warren Wilson College. Her sixth book of . . . MORE »
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