Excerpt from

After Reading Tu Fu, I Go Outside to the Dwarf Orchard



East of me, west of me, full summer.
How deeper than elsewhere the dusk is in your own yard.
Birds fly back and forth across the lawn
                  looking for home
As night drifts up like a little boat.
Day after day, I become of less use to myself.
Like this mockingbird,
            I flit from one thing to the next.
What do I have to look forward to at fifty-four?
Tomorrow is dark.
        Day-after-tomorrow is darker still.


Charles Wright at The Academy of American Poets