Are You Mr. William Stafford?

Photograph by A. Mierau



Are You Mr. William Stafford?


"Are you Mr. William Stafford?"
"Yes, but...."

Well, it was yesterday.
Sunlight used to follow my hand.
And that's when the strange siren-like
sound flooded over the horizon
and rushed through
the streets of our town.
That's when sunlight came from behind
a rock and began to follow my hand.

"It's for the best," my mother said—
"Nothing can ever be wrong for anyone
truly good."
So later the sun settled back
and the sound faded and was gone.
All along the streets every
house waited, white, blue, gray:
trees were still trying to arch
as far as they could.

You can't tell when strange things
with meaning will happen.
I'm [still] here writing it down
just the way it was. "You don't have to
prove anything," my mother said.
"Just be ready for what God sends."
I listened and put my hand
out in the sun again.
It was all easy.

Well, it was yesterday.
And the sun came,
Why
It came.

—William Stafford

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