Larry Levis

Here you will find the Poem Signs of poet Larry Levis

Signs

All night I dreamed of my home, 
of the roads that are so long 
and straight they die in the middle? 
among the spines of elderly weeds 
on either side, among the dead cats, 
the ants who are all eyes, the suitcase 
thrown open, sprouting failures. 


2. 
And this evening in the garden 
I find the winter 
inside a snail shell, rigid and 
cool, a little stubborn temple, 
its one visitor gone. 


3. 
If there were messages or signs, 
I might hear now a voice tell me 
to walk forever, to ask 
the mold for pardon, and one 
by one I would hear out my sins, 
hear they are not important?that I am 
part of this rain 
drumming its long fingers, and 
of the roadside stone refusing 
to blink, and of the coyote 
nailed to the fence with its 
long grin. 


And when there are no messages 
the dead lie still? 
their hands crossed so strangely 
like knives and forks after supper. 


4. 
I stay up late listening. 
My feet tap the floor, 
they begin a tiny dance 
which will outlive me. 
They turn away from this poem. 
It is almost Spring.