For Stanley Kunitz Who I Never Knew

By Emily Mills (5/16/06)

I did not know you

not literally, not biblically

avoided your words without knowing

            they was what I turned from—

I am told by the radio’s obituary

you entered unto earth

same as you departed;

            a sentence about change—

I go to search now

these scribbled-typed seedlings

collect to form your chrestomathy

            researching a spirit gone on—

                        One century

                        (chosen well, chosen carefully)

                        from greasy whale oil

                        to dry circuitry

                        (the latter maybe your kinds’ only foil)

No flesh can fold back the veil

to reveal

the most revered and reviled destination

of all humanity.

I can not find your voice,

will never be quite so admired

for an ability to string letters together so eloquently,

for what you did is done.

Or just so changed

that no living thing

could now understand.

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