Snowbanks North of the House

Snowbanks North of the House


Those great sweeps of snow that stop
suddenly six feet from the house ...
Thoughts that go so far.
The boy gets out of high school
and reads no more books;
the son stops calling home.
The mother puts down her rolling pin
and makes no more bread.
And the wife looks at her husband
one night at a party,
and loves him no more.
The energy leaves the wine,
and the minister falls
leaving the church.
It will not come closer
the one inside moves back,
and the hands touch
nothing, and are safe.

The father grieves for his son,
and will not leave the
room where the coffin stands.
He turns away from his wife,
and she sleeps alone.

And the sea lifts and falls all night,
the moon goes on
through the unattached heavens alone.

The toe of the shoe pivots
in the dust ...
And the man in the black coat turns,
and goes back down the hill.
No one knows why he came,
or why he turned away,
and did not climb the hill.


Robert Bly

Posted over on Famous Poets & Poems