Winter 2005

 


WINTER 2005


Marvin Bell
DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS

The violinist pinches a string
to sound a higher note, then holsters the Strad
in its copper glow. Oil shines from the wood.
He has survived, again, the cadenza. Oh,
whiskey and song have fed as many as pasta,
if the truth be told. You wrenched your back
repainting the bedroom that blistering August.
Pine cones tarred the lawn. So we left.
In Marrakech, our camel’s feet hammered
the gravel and gouged the sand. Even a clam
must be happier than a camel. I smile to think
of us on its back, and of you in my old jacket.


Marvin Bell's latest collection of poems is Rampant, published in 2004. In May of 2005, he will retire after a forty-year career as a faculty member at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

 

 

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