Maria Gapotchenko in 3QD

How wonderful to see that the blog 3 Quarks Daily ("3QD is smart and high-class."—Robert Pinsky, former U.S. Poet Laureate) has selected a poem from one of our Boston Poetry/Pen & Anvil publications for this week's Sunday Poem pick. The piece, "Third Person" by Maria Gapotchenko, was originally published in Clarion #15.

In Third Person

a haze a heron in a tide-pool
and for a long time out of time
two children push a giant yellow globe

coyotes come and every June the same
the unrequited loneliness the same
out-of-tune expressions herons dance
the same blue wings
                           it all made sense
the way he asked me for the Book of Job
to make some pattern make some rhyme
out of his life before he die
the way he scrutinized his patterned robe

when he did die it's simply that he sensed
there was no more to do no other dance
to be composed no present tense