Infinity: An Epilogue
Daily Bread and Cheese
The slickest caper
is to live in the world
between safety and danger.
Should thirst persist there,
believe it to be only a trivial thirst
which should not trouble love.
Just in case,
there is a pillbox on the divan
to indicate
a glass of water may be near.
The children walked through the little gate
and I ran to meet them in the garden,
rose campion’s silver leafage
chased by teardrops.
Remember how I poured
milk before water,
creamed and plenty of it
till you little ones swooned?
The glass, the garden, the hour.
Remember how we loved
to watch two waxwings safe
in their twiggy bower,
how they remained when we pursued,
how they loved our company
and in the heart of morning how we loved
to watch them drinking from our basin.
If love will delay dying,
love anything.
Who standing here is not ready
for the brutal mix
of another day, hoping
there will surely be the kindness
of reward ahead
in the form of sustenance,
such as the taking of daily bread
and cheese, along with a morsel
of something raw and nutty,
so that after thirty-one obsidian nights
the wall will become a page,
a page encountered many times before
but which now seems quite new.
Irene Mitchell, a long-time teacher of writing, is the author of Minding the Spectrum’s Business (Future Cycle Press, 2015), A Study of Extremes in Six Suites (Cherry Grove Collections, 2012), and Sea Wind on the White Pillow (Axes Mundi Press, 2009). Formerly poetry editor of Hudson River Art Journal, Mitchell has served as poetry contest juror, and facilitator of poetry workshops. She is known for her collaborations with visual artists and composers.
