<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">At the Far End of a Sturdy Branch</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><b class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </b><i class="">for Fran Claggett-Holland</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">You, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>who knew Robert Frost,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and bought a Picasso </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>with money you didn’t have, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">now greet me at your door</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">with a Saluki and a Whippet,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">in a dress windswept</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">with charcoal brush strokes,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a necklace which only </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">your neck could honor,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and a smile to welcome me in.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The house brims with art.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A collusion of couches and chairs </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">brace themselves to accommodate </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">an entire tribe of poets.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The butcher block, scored</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">with decades of Madge’s slices</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">in concert with flour from your hands.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">As you speak of your two only sons, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">both poets grown grey,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and Madge behind a permeable</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">membrane of memory—</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I hear the music of</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">“the end of your beginning,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">measuring out the days </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">grounded in rhythm and rhyme.”</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">At one point I envision you </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">holding a cup of hot chocolate,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">marshmallows melting on the surface,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">afloat on the second movement </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">of Beethoven’s <i class="">Pathetique</i>.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">While you leave a lifetime</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">of astonished poets in your wake,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">(every encounter a potential student)</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I catch a glimpse of what </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">my life could have been,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and might still become.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Steve Trenam</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></body></html>