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Their Story

By Stuart Dybek b. 1942 Stuart Dybek

They were nearing the end of their story.

The fire was dying, like the fire in the story.

Each page turned was torn and fed

to flames, until word by word the book

burned down to an unmade bed of ash.

Wet kindling from an orchard of wooden spoons,

snow stewing, same old wind on the Gramophone,

same old wounds. Turn up the blue dial

under the kettle until darkness boils

with fables, and mirrors defrost to the quick

before fogging with steam, and dreams

rattle their armor of stovepipes and ladles.

Boots in the corner kick in their sleep.

A jacket hangs from a question mark.

Source: Poetry (June 2012).

Biography

Poet and fiction writer Stuart Dybek was born in 1942 and raised on the South Side of Chicago. He attended Loyola University in Chicago and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His collections of poetry include Brass Knuckles (1979) and Streets in Their Own Ink (2004). His works of fiction, including the short story collections Childhood and Other Neighborhoods (1980) and The Coast of Chicago (1990), and the novel-in-stories I Sailed . . .

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