La Vita Nuova

Last summer, in the blue heat,

Over the beach, in the burning air,

A legless beggar lurched on calloused fists

To where I waited with the sun-dazed birds.

He said, "The summer boils away. My life

Joins to another life; this parched skin

Dries and dies and flakes away,

Becomes your costume when the torn leaves blow."

—Thus in the losing autumn,

Over the streets, I now lurch

Legless to your side and speak your name

Under a gray sky ripped apart

By thunder and the changing wind.