For Hugh Ogden, Poet,
fallen through the ice on 12/31/06

 

The temperature was higher than normal

That day, but we were poet’s right?

You can’t let fragility stop you.

Besides, we’d walked on water often.

We could change the degree of things

With our words.

 

The whole world was celebrating that night,

A cold world

Embracing a new year.

People were pushing for the future,

Far, blessed and wide.

 

But remember the end of that year,

And how we all fall through

An imperfect surface

Trying to cross

To the other side.