La Vita Nuova

Last summer, in the blue heat,

Over the beach, in the burning air,

A legless beggar lurched on calloused

To where I waited with the sun-dazed birds.

He said, "The summer boils away.

My

Joins to another life; this parched

Dries and dies and flakes away,

Becomes your costume when the torn leaves blow."—Thus in the losing autumn,

Over the streets,

I now

Legless to your side and speak your

Under a gray sky ripped

By thunder and the changing wind.