名人诗歌|Quotidian Poem

When I heard the bombing

had begun I drove down

to Keene and bought

a 3x magnifying glass，

a sketch^{1 book}

and drawing pencils. Then，

I went out behind the apartments

to snap off seed pods， weeds

I could not name

and a couple of brittle^{2 leaves.}

I saved the afternoon

by studying edges

of petals^{3， seeds，}

the marvelous veins⁴

and sketching^{5 them.}

On the page， I wrote：

unknown weeds 10/7/01， found

in the patch between Applewood

and the Historical Museum；

on the day we began bombing.

Then I made a pot of soup

out of black-eyed peas

and a ham bone

I'd frozen from Easter.

I threw in onions， garlic，

parsley， cumin，

a couple of tomatoes

whatever made sense.

Enough for an army.