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    • June 2013
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That dream of a cricket

in the dark of the night

at the foot

of the gallows tree.

Virtuous

cricket. Little, hopeful

heart-

shaped face

lit up by the moon.

Little, hopeful, insistent

song

about the future

sung

to a hanged man’s boots.

Source: Poetry (October 2012).

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MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

This poem originally appeared in the October 2012 issue of Poetry magazine

• The Span
  by Elizabeth Seydel Morgan
• The Long Hill
  by Sara Teasdale
• Down in the Valley
  by Joshua Mehigan

• October 2012 Table of Contents
• Subscribe to Poetry magazine
• About Poetry magazine
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More about this poem

Biography

Poet and novelist Laura Kasischke was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Michigan. Her books of poetry include Wild Brides (1992), Fire and Flower (1998), Dance and Disappear (2002), Gardening in the Dark (2004), Lilies Without (2007), and Space, in Chains (2011), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Kasischke has won numerous awards for her poetry, including the . . .

Continue reading this biography

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Poems by Laura Kasischke

• After Ken Burns
• Game
• Hospital parking lot, April
• In this order
• Mushrooms

• More poems by Laura Kasischke (8 poems)
  • Rondeau
  • The Second Death
  • You’ve Come Back to Me

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Poem Categorization

SUBJECT Living, Death, Health & Illness, Life Choices, The Mind

Poetic Terms Free Verse

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Related

Audio

• The Poetry Magazine Podcast: "Accident Plays a Part in Art"
• Poem of the Day: After Ken Burns
• The Poetry Magazine Podcast: The Effect of Small Things
• Poem of the Day: Hospital parking lot, April
• Poem of the Day: In This Order
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• Poetry Off the Shelf: Poetry at the 92nd Street Y
• Poem of the Day: Rondeau
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• The Poetry Magazine Podcast: "We All Exist, Wetly"

Articles

• Fortune-tellers and Pharmacists by Brian Phillips
• Live All You Can by Michael Robbins
• Six Books by Joel Brouwer

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