Part of Eve’s Discussion
It was like the moment a bird decides not to eat
… from your hand,
and flies, the moment the rivers seem
… to still
and stop because a storm is coming, but there is no
… storm, as when
a hundred starlings lift and bank together before they
… wheel and drop,
very much like the moment, driving on bad ice, when it
… occurs to you
your car could spin, just before it slowly begins to spin,
… like
the moment just before you forgot what it was you were
… about to say,
it was like that, and after that, it was still like that, only
… all the time.
by Marie Howe
from Poetry 180
Random House 2003