The Man Closing Up,' from Night Light' (1967), <br /> <br />would make his bed, <br />If he could sleep on it. <br />He would make his bed with white sheets <br />And disappear into the white, <br />Like a man diving, <br />If he could be certain <br />That the light <br />Would not keep him awake, <br />The light that reaches <br />To the bottom. <br /> <br />dour vision of life's journey: from 'Sestina on Six Words by Weldon Kees' <br /> <br />There is no way to ease the burden. <br />The voyage leads on from harm to harm, <br />A land of others and of silence. <br /> <br />'The Miami of Other Days' <br /> <br />The winter streets an orchestra of horns <br />And gods slept under tabernacle tents <br />That sprang up overnight on circus grounds <br />Like giant toadstools yearning for respectability. <br /> <br />In a portrait of himself at age seven he writes : <br /> <br />sometimes he would squat among the foul weeds of the vacant lot, <br />Waiting for dusk and someone dear to come <br />And whip him down the street, but gently, home. <br /> <br />'Poem to Be Read at 3 A.M.' <br /> <br />Excepting the diner <br />On the outskirts <br />The town of Ladora <br />At 3 A.M. <br />Was dark but <br />For my headlights <br />And up in <br />One second story room <br />A single light. <br /> <br />A more recent poem on the Great Depression shows his cynical side: <br /> <br />Agriculture embraced Industry, <br />Mammothly, on public walls. <br />Meanwhile we camped out underneath <br />Great smiles on billboards fading. <br /> <br />How shall I speak of Doom, and ours in special, <br />But as of something altogether common ?<br /><br />Donald Justice<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/extraits/
