Listen!
VISITING T.C. STEELE'S HOUSE IN THE RAIN I. the trees have had time to approach the painter's house and grow large they have taken away his view but so has death and death was never cut down in his time or ours his wife's gardens have been copied by the employees of the state and under this dull sky they make earth brighter than heaven on a rock in one of them I saw a garter snake looking at me and wishing I would go so the frogs would come out II. the studio sits just off the peak of the hill looking like a barn under its hip roof they let the varnish on the paintings dull but keep the dust off his brushes gift shop in the back his work on the walls examples of the two hands he worked with a smooth hand for flattering sitters a rough hand for pleasing himself one hand plus the other equalled happiness one made a living (guess which) one showed the long vistas he lived among and nearer by the scrubbiness and brilliance living out in the country brings home to you his chickens posed for him under the trees morning light slant on the pecked-bare dirt also the oak still there a hundred years later the old woman my guide asks how I make my living by listening to troubles I say thinking of my own just now thank god not great leaving I drop five dollars in the donation box and put up the hood on my raincoat so I am equal to the rain ready to go for a walk III. from the cabin below the house I follow the trail of silences whose name is true the streams it crosses make a little noise but between one and the other a different silence each time up the hill again panting stopping for breath I see a doe grazing on the grass covering the family graves she runs from smelling me