PassageAuthor(s): Marianne BoruchSource: The Iowa Review, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Fall, 1979), p. 37Published by: University of IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20140286 .

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Passage Marianne Boruch

I took the old man in me & went to the river.

Get out, I said

opening my coat

to tree & air & ice.

Get out, I said. This is it.

He would not look at me.

Blunt feather as he moved, light winnowed him, dark trace

spine & rib. I thought: you sullen bird

you fish. I imagined his blue eyes, hook

simple, hard as dice. I swore

above the glare: teach me now, bastard.

Thin pajamas, stepping into wind.

I buttoned my coat as he walked toward the water.

For a moment, his hair flashed

impossibly white. I thought of river filth his numb, pale weight

dropping into the cold jaw. I opened my mouth: nothing nothing

37

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