ACCOUNT OF MY DAYS
Sequence: 7
HEAVEN AND HELL
Understand me: I was the boy
in the hidden parts of the barn,
the holes and channels made by square bales
pressing against the odd angles of the roof,
the one who knew the abandoned corners
of the corn cribs, the dust and cobwebs
and broken floorboards--
it was me in the shed whose roof
had fallen in, where the giant weeds
grew up into the rafters
and made a greenish underwater light.
I knew the sidewalk, that the slab
with the iron ring in its side
was the lid to a lost cistern,
and I thought I was supposed to figure out
Heaven and Hell etc.--
the hot sun, the cool earth,
parents' anger, the reason why
things happened backwards and out
of order. Over and over the dew
caught in the grass, and we
were caught in that house with
its basement corners of secrecy,
its closed attics of mystery,
places in the rafters
or by the foundation walls
where I hid alone and had
shadows and daydreams for company.