Ode to Jarkko Laine, Elegy Also

 

Here in the mountains where the birds shiver

And across the lake a woman beats a rock

With an oar and clouds rear up like horses

I take pleasure in the absurd life inside us.

I remember you lived on “big ditch road”

A homely name–O home sweet home–

Let’s climb down into the hole of domesticity,

Women and children first, books and dishes,

Maybe a set of knives and a radio.

I want to be a liaison of sorts to the court of things,

A poet’s job, sorting the leftovers,

Making the emptiness sing.

I don’t know how to say goodbye

But I can play my harmonica in the dirty places

Like any man inside a man.