HOWARD NEMEROV

To write an epic with an all-star cast,
Even the extras somebodies in their day,
To have for theme the whole of history
With plenty to spare, to finish all that up
By falling asleep in the divine mind
And disremembering everything at once,
With everyone you ever knew, as well
As everyone you didn't, dead;
You on that stage to be the only one
Alive among the crowding shadows, well,
We always figured that's what poets want,
And by God you got it, the whole damned blessed lot.

How lonely, though, between the eternities,
The long way down, and up, and over and out.

Work that appears on the KR web site is from The Kenyon Review and all applicable copyright restrictions apply.