in the plural solitude of Zen retreat to calm his mind but when it’s done

what he needs I think is something truly free of mind a slab of earth

by way of cow by way of fire the surface charred the juices

running pink and red on the white plate

FOX

rangy loping swiveling left then right I’m thinking

nonchalant but the doves flutter up to the roof of the barn the crickets

leap from the grass like fleas a fox is in my yard-o my yard-o

plenty of songs in my head

to sing to my child’s child if she were here

she wakes in her wooden crib and sings to herself

odd happy child so like another child content in her pen

with a pot a metal straw a lid a hole in the lid a glass hat

for the hole a metal basket with smaller holes

one hole the size of the straw for hours

I made the pieces fit then took them apart

then made them fit when I got tired I lay me down my little head

against the flannel chicks and ducks then slept then woke then took

the puzzle up my mother had another child sick unto death

she needed me to fall in love with solitude I fell in love

it is my toy my happiness the child of my friends

is never ever left alone asleep awake

pushing her wooden blocks around the rug they cannot bear

her least distress their eyes stay on their sparrow poor happy child

last year I startled a fox crossing the road the tail

more rust than red the head cranked forward facing me

it stopped stock-still as if deciding whether to hurry forward

or turn back it had a yellow apple in its mouth

and the little ones chew on the bones-o

NOBLE DOG

behind our house down to the brook and the woods

beyond the groomed grass and flower beds what we see

are brook and woods and sometimes mild creatures of the field

we thought when we bathed in the claw-footed tub we could pretend

we stayed inside the natural world no shutters no shades at night

beside the mirror over the sink the windows darkened into mirrors

where my daughter at thirteen admired her tan her new body until she felt

or thought she felt something move outside in the yard and asked quietly

up the backstairs for us to come down here for just a minute please

come down here now we couldn’t tell how much was fear

how much was shame we thought she needed us to be calm

we tried to be calm like the trooper we called who said without alarm

to the handsome noble dog where is he buddy where is he buddy

at which as if in a game of fetch the dog went straight around the house