Night School by Carl Dennis

Author:Carl Dennis [Dennis, Carl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2018-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

Emily’s Birthday

It isn’t likely to transform your life,

Your desire to buy a birthday gift for Emily,

But it may transform an empty hour

Into a full one. It may remind you

That the bookstore you’ve often browsed in

Is more than the halfway marker

On the way home from the clinic

That it seemed reduced to yesterday,

The day of your yearly checkup.

It’s a place to search for a gift on a subject

That seldom fails to engage her, like plant ecology

Or the habits of social animals.

The errand won’t counter your worry

That fewer years are left you than you would like,

But it may assist you in setting that worry aside

For a while as you give yourself

To making the best selection.

You won’t know the title until you find it,

But you know already it won’t be a screed

That argues the earth is a hopeless case.

Better a book on protecting the habitat

Of beleaguered species, on transforming

Eroded fields into woods or meadows.

And if the clerk at the gift-wrap counter

Looks gaunt as a ghost, as you imagine

The Angel of Death might look

When announcing it’s time to ask

If your life has been meaningful, and if not,

Why not, the question will have to wait

Till you make it clear that the green paper

Is more appropriate than the charcoal,

And a ribbon not pink or white

But the bright yellow of forsythia.

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