10
      Tapestry
Isolde of the White Hands and her knights, holding their noses and laughing
at prisoners whose bellies soldiers open, pulling the guts into basins.

11
      Visiting
I
Almost midnight. “Good night.” “ Good night.”
I close the heavy door behind me.
The black courtyard smells of water: it has been raining.
What were we talking about?

II
He leans back along the sofa. I talk. His fingers twitch at his bath-robe.
I talk. I turn my pockets inside out.
In his oblique eyes a polite disdain.

12
The noise in the subway will sound no louder than the wind in trees;
you, too, will be used to it. After a while you will forget to care
whether you ride in subways or on horses.

13
Sparrows scream at the dawn one note:
how should they learn melody
in the street’s noises?