After the accident, I lay in the grass
among glass shards and scattered debris,
and black-robed Death never closer
with cartoon scythe and cardboard eyes.

It’s just another day, said the EMT.
But where had Death, my dear one, gone?
I open my heart to you, I cried, my eyes
and arms, my dear, my one.

 

 

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Jerry Harp’s books of poems include Creature (Salt) and Spirit Under Construction (Neopoiesis). He is also the author of For Us, What Music: The Life and Poetry of Donald Justice (Iowa). Currently he is editing a selection of Donald Justice’s letters for publication and finishing a new book of poems, Dear Other. He teaches at Lewis and Clark College.