Author: Catherine Lacey
Cites
- John Berryman (1)
- IN: Nobody is Ever Missing (2014) Fiction, American
EPIGRAPH: There sat down, once, a thing on Henry's heart
so heavy, if he had a hundred years
& more, & weeping, sleepless, in all them time
Henry could not make good.
Starts again always in Henry's ears
the little cough somewhere, an ordour, a chime.
And there is another thing he has in mind
like a grave Sienese face a thousand years
would fail to blur the still profiled reproach of.
Ghastly,
with open eyes, he attends, blind.
All the bells say: too late. This is not for tears;
thinking.
But never did Henry, as he thought he did,
end anyone and hacks her body up
and hide the pieces, where they may be found.
He knows: he went over everyone, & nobody's
missing.
Often he reckons, in the dawn, them up.
Nobody is ever missing.
FROM: Dream Song 29, (1969), Poem, US