Staying at Ed's Place

I like being in your apartment, and not disturbing anything.

As in the woods I wouldn't want to move a tree,

or change the play of sun and shadow on the ground.

The yellow kitchen stool belongs right there

against white plaster. I haven't used your purple towel

because I like the accidental cleft of shade you left in it.

At your small six-sided table, covered with mysterious

dents in the wood like a dartboard, I drink my coffee

from your brown mug. I look into the clearing

of your high front room, where sunlight slopes through bare

window squares. Your Afghanistan hammock, a man-sized cocoon

slung from the wall to wall, your narrow desk and typewriter

are the only furniture. Each morning your light from the east

douses me where, with folded legs, I sit in your meadow,

a casual spread of brilliant carpets. Like a cat or dog

I take a roll, then, stretched out flat

in the center of color and pattern, I listen

to the remote growl of trucks over cobbles on Bethune Street below.

When I open my eyes I discover the peaceful blank

of the ceiling. Its old paint-layered surface is moonwhite

and trackless, like the Sea—of Tranquillity.