WEBVTT

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A little short poem, sort of a
quasi sonnet, set in Vermont.

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It's called "The Cusp."

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"So few birds, the ones
that winter through

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and the geese migrating
through the empty fields,

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fording the cropped,
knuckled stalks of corn.

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All around us, all that's
green's suppressed.

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And in the brooding wood, the
bare trees, shorn of leaves

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or else just shy of
leaves, make a dark estate

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beneath low clouds that have
the look of stubborn snow.

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In a purely scientific exercise,
say you came from the moon

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or returned like Lazarus,
blinking from the cave,

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you wouldn't know if winter's
past or now beginning.

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The bank slopes up.

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The bank slopes
down to the ditch.

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Would it help if I said
grieving has an end?

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Would it matter if I
told you this is spring?"

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