Ever since the woman died we have all been trying and trying to drag the man Wilson back up out of the sea of doubt and dumbness into which we feel him sinking deeper and deeper, and to no avail.
And I have only told you his story in the hopes that among you, the readers, there may be one who, like the woman from Kansas, will know what we others do not know; that is to say that you will know how to put an arm down into the sea and that you will have the strength to drag the man Wilson back to the surface again.
NAMED FLAMINGO
He stands
on a jointed stick;
his neck, the snake of snow
black-mouthed,
coiled on the almond-
shaped body
thatched with plumes.
First the yellow
rays break (Cézanne said)
leaving blue
for outline, as of his foot,
a flawless bone,
fixed in the unhorned water.
Hard bird, he prefers
with his eye
the oiled silk leaves,
the dome, and clouds like fur
