At the Methodist ice cream sociable they meet
he in a hot straw hat, she in her dusk-colored
skirts
that in a corner of the night begin unfolding.
A principle is established: a thing like a tiny dot
in the center of a piece of virgin paper
begins unfolding, doubles and lies flat
panting with the effort, doubles itself again.
Nothing is involved that we could call
Consciousness, any more than in the automatic
opening of an umbrella that continues opening.
The ice cream sociable continues, growing older
and less distinct under a succession of moons
the rain moon, the hunter's moon, the burial
moon,
the moon of replacement. Something has opened
and continues opening, gradually using up the
future
which turns out to be all of the space there is.
From "The Education of Desire" by William Dickey (Wesleyan: $22.50, 88 pp.) . Copyright 1996 Reprinted by permission.
