The Evening Sun: A Journal In Poetry by David Lehman

December 31

Tonight's the night, as Woody Allen said of death

"I just don't want to be there at the time"

having lived through War and Peace would one

be more likely or less likely to look out the window

and not see the Russian Revolution a red blazing ball

I never thought I'd see the Berlin Wall

collapse and end the history of the spy novel

but that, too, has happened the century ended

eight years ago a short century with three major global

wars (two hot, one cold) some days you feel

you live in a museum but this isn't one of them

this is a day for reading Wallace Stevens aloud

"The Bird With The Coppery, Keen Claws" and

think of what a work associate said of Mr. Stevens

"Well, if you leave out his personal life, he was

a happy man" Joe is disappointed

that he can't visit his cousins in New Jersey

but he won't let our disappointment show or turn

to bitterness the disease of artists we just want

to look out the window and see the couds

change shape and go in their direction