You needn’t be born a Bourbon
To dream your funereal deluge,
Some climactic climatic disturbance
To rain out the end of your reign.
A desultory drizzle of tears
Is the most that most of us get,
Precious precipitation
But scarcely the torrent we merit.
We’d prefer a proportionate downpour
But will settle for rills swelling
And basements portentously flooded—
Though even some frustrated faucets
Would do, a drop in the pressure,
Ice in the pipes of the world.
On Getting Old
Two years plus a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column that began thus: “I am…
Dostoevsky’s Credo
What does it mean to believe something? Is it possible for a person to profess an idea…
Large Language Poetry
In my ideal undergraduate course in literary criticism, the first semester would include a brisk introduction to…