Postlude
By Rita Dove
Stay by the hearth, little cricket.
—Cendrillon
You prefer me invisible, no more than
a crisp salute far away from
your silks and firewood and woolens.
Out of sight, I’m merely an annoyance,
one slim, obstinate wrinkle in night’s
deepening trance. When sleep fails,
you wish me shushed and back in my hole.
As usual, you’re not listening: time stops
only if you stop long enough to hear it
passing. This is my business:
I’ve got ten weeks left to croon through.
What you hear is a lifetime of song.
Copyright Credit: Rita Dove, "Postlude" from Playlist for the Apocalypse. Copyright © 2021 by Rita Dove. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc..
Source: Playlist for the Apocalypse (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2021)