Gary Duehr
 
Now
 
Scene: an empty street.
A couple cars going by. And in the heat,
A block of ice
Melting on the sidewalk, a thin stream
Trickling to the curb. There is no theme.
Later on, the ice will still be there:
Glacial, opaque, and angular, just where
It was. Why does this moment mean? What questions
Does it slowly ask, as if at once
To answer and refuse
Simultaneously. What is there left to lose?
We sigh and turn the page,
We move along. We blame it on our age.
But later still, we might be lured
To circle back at closing time, our vision blurred:
Has the ice block disappeared
Completely, even then? Is that the thing we feared?

Gary Duehr has taught poetry and writing for institutions including Boston University, Lesley University, and Tufts University. His MFA is from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. In 2001 he received an NEA Poetry Fellowship, and he has also received grants and fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the LEF Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Journals in which his poems have appeared include Agni, American Literary Review, Chiron Review, Cottonwood, Hawaii Review, Hotel Amerika, Iowa Review, North American Review, and Southern Poetry Review. His books of poetry include In Passing (Grisaille Press, 2011), THE BIG BOOK OF WHY (Cobble Hill Books, 2008), Winter Light (Four Way Books, 1999), and Where Everyone Is Going To (St. Andrews College Press, 1999).