Obsessing on James Wright 

When he died in a dingy nursing home,  
                               his eyes transfixed on a nature calendar  
featuring fall foliage, 
it was snowing outside. 
Women take new lovers. Men cheat their wives.  
                    What one expects to happen dries up on the vine. 
Rarely does it snow in October, 
maples sticking their gold tongues out through cloud white.  
          But not so rare an event 
as Socrates learning a new song 
before his execution—death by hemlock. 
Sad eyes of a fox hover over the darkened house.  
                                      Had he been alive, he would have 
left his fresh kill at the edge of the fence. 

BIMAN ROY

Biman Roy’s work has been widely published. His writing has been nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart prizes. He is the author of one book of poems, Miss Manhattan, and three chapbooks: Of Moon and Washing Machine, Navigating the Quartz Forest, and Dinosaur Hour.