Erosion

From Erosion:SAN SEPOLCRO
Jorie Graham

. . . . How cleanthe mind is,holy grave. It is this girlby Pierodella Francesca, unbuttoningher blue dress,her mantle of weather,to go intolabor. Come, we can go in.It is beforethe birth of god. No-onehas risen yetto the museums, to the assemblyline bodiesand wings to the open airmarket. This iswhat the living do: go in.It's a long way.And the dress keeps openingfrom eternityto privacy, quickening.Inside, at the heart,is tragedy, the present momentforever stillborn,but going in, each breathis a buttoncoming undone, something terriblynimble-fingeredfinding all of the stops.

Jorie Graham grew up in Italy and now lives in northern California.She has received grants from the Ingram-Merrill Foundation, the Bunting Institute, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.Her first book, Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts (Princeton, 1980), won the Great Lakes Colleges Association Award as the best first book of poems published in 1980.