Against Epiphany

By Fred Marchant Fred Marchant

What god was it that would open

earth’s picture book and see the two

of us on a road, snowfields glittering

on every side and poplars bent like

the fingers of an old man clutching

what he loved about the sun?

Which one was it that would peer

into our thatched, white-washed

farmhouse, and see the fur, flies,

and shit-stained walls? Which one

laughed at the barbed wire fences,

the wall topped with broken glass?

Which of the many who came then,

gleaming and rimed in hard sunlight?

Which of those who bobbed like ice

along the winter shore? What did

we have that any god would want?

Quick, if you can find it, hide it.

Source: The Looking House (Graywolf Press, 2009)

Biography

Fred Marchant's most recent book of poetry, The Looking House (Graywolf Press, 2009) was named by Barnes & Noble Review as one of the five best books of poetry in 2009. The San Francisco Chronicle picked it as one of the ten best collections of poetry, and the Massachusetts Book Award committee listed as one of the “must reads” of the past year. Janette Currie, writing in Pleiades, has written that “Marchant’s great achievement . . .

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