97
Vo l . 6 N o . 2
David Wagoner
Song for the Sequence of Tenses You open your mouth to sing but have too little time between your past and future to remember what you wanted Joe Kashi
to sing for and about or recall what you intended
Risus Sardonicus
or measure what could be left of am is are will be what should have been what was what must and what might have been.
Rock with Raven
Monica O’Keefe
It’s been prescribed for us, that is, if we manage to die with enough of our faces left to be legible for a while, that the muscles in between our cheeks and the outer edges of our lips will tighten up just as they used to when we were happy or trying to seem so to ourselves or someone on both sides of our masks, so when curious friends or strangely curious strangers look at us then and try to decide what they’re reading there, which ought to be the end of the play, they’ll be seeing the carefully made-up face of the tragedian and, backstage, the playwright at the close of the curtain, after the climax, the purging of pity and terror, and the dying fall or perhaps the comedian’s satisfaction at having made us laugh in the face of death, amazed amusement at lights out.