Sixteen Tons
To prolong the moment
as a simile extends a sentence
about the heroine’s innocence
which she yielded to her lover and now
she hates him as Eve hates Adam
when she risks her lifeto give birth to their child –
To sit in your car and listen
to the last bars of something great
(Bernstein’s “Divertimento for Orchestra,”
you find out later) and then you turn off
the engine open the door
and return to your life, “another
day older and deeper in debt” —
That’s what the authorities fail to get.
You can learn a lot from
the sportscaster’s present tense:
“Three years ago he beats out that hit,”
about a player who has lost a step or two
due to a leg injury.
Three years ago, we all beat out that hit.
When I escape from this party
of unloved doves and loveless hawks,
I shall head to my desk and write
the sonnet that praises the antique pen
used to write out prophecies of today
with you on my arm, unafraid.
from New and Selected Poems by David Lehman (Scribner, 2013)
Happy birthday, maestro