Tom Clark

 

Tom Clark in Bolinas, California in 1972. He was a prized student of the poet Donald Hall and the poetry editor for George Plimpton’s Paris Review.Credit...Gerard Malang

Oct. 28

The day of the dead when 
the veil between us and them 
is thinnest eyelash 
kitty breath umbrella flutter 
psychic butterfly - 

A whole procession of them coming 
pushing through the thin 
mesh of the net - the sugar candy 
shedding of the skin and how 
it lets the wind blow through the veins 
the dance of the skulls and when 
the spinning of the little mechanic 
inside the toy clock stops 
the dark man carrying two suitcases 
steps from the now no longer 
moving train - 

That's the day when 
I know someone will be 
no longer waiting, 
the unborn child said. 
I invented what I wanted to say 
in case anybody out there, 
on a cold grey day in autumn, 
wanted to hear the thoughts 
of the dead -� 

I opened the door and 
in flew a moth, thinking 
twilight came early