The Fat Old Couple Whirling Around

The Fat Old Couple Whirling Around


The drum says that the night we die
will be a long night.
It says the children have time to play.
Tell the grownups they can pull
the curtains around the bed tonight.


The old man wants to know
how the war ended.
The young girl wants her breasts
to cause the sun to rise.
The thinker wants to keep
misunderstanding alive.


It’s all right if the earthly monk
is buried near the altar.
It’s all right if the singer fails
to turn up for her concert.
It’s good if the fat old couple
keeps whirling around.


Let the parents sing
over the cradle every night.
Let the pelicans go on living
in their stickly nests.
Let the duck go on loving
the mud around her feet.


It’s all right if the ant always
remembers his way home.
It’s all right if Bach keeps
reaching for the same note.
It’s all right if we knock
the ladder away from the house.


Even if you are a puritan
it would be all right
If you join the lovers in their
ruined house tonight.
It’s good if you become a soul
and then disappear.


Robert Bly

Posted over on Poetry Foundation


“The Fat Old Couple Whirling Around” from My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy, by Robert Bly.