Mark Strand




Some Last Words

1
It is easier for a needle to pass through a camel
Than for a poor man to enter a woman of means.
Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

2
Eventually, you slip outside, letting the door
Bang shut on your latest thought. What was it anyway?
Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

3
“Negligence” is the perfume I love.
O Fedora. Fedora. If you want any.
Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

 4
The bones of the buffalo, the rabbit at sunset,
The wind and its double, the tree, the town…
Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

5
If you think good things are on their way
And the world will improve, don’t hold your breath.
Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

6
You over there, why do you ask if this is the valley
Of limitless blue, and if we are its prisoners?
Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

7
Life is a dream that is never recalled when the sleeper awakes.
If this is beyond you, Magnificent One,
Just go to the graveyard and ask around.