she carried you choking under stardust autumn sky,
with the paper-cup pills
all stuck in your throat-
where the rising was early, and ever did fall
where the season was yearning, and the idea was all.

all that could be in a piano bench,
wind tinkling the keys
where ivory chessmen forever guard,
where your feet don't rustle leaves.
and all the yous you'd ever been
have left with morning light;
father figure, husband friends,
your webs of oil-hardened hands,
and ice cream, a pint each Saturday,
your metal tags from harsher days

now all the yous you'd been to them
press down with all earth's might
and now the stars shielding your lids-
they carry you into night.