a quiet, normal life

On the kitchen counter, bananas rot
while vased flowers droop, wail,

drop dry petals and leaves, writhing, wrought
 
with despair. These cut flowers grow
obedient

to the motions of knowing old
 
truths, the truths of time.

The vase, less than half full, knew doom
yet was proud, modern, minimal, spoke
 
to passers-by some floral yes, but
its is-ness knew not right

nor wrong, nor ladies nor lords

nor much of sound.

​​Its is-ness, silent, reflected forms
like bananas rotting, and orifices.

Responding to the poem of the same name by Wallace Stevens, "A Quiet, Normal Life" which was published posthumously in The Collected Poems (1954) and was included within a previously unpublished collection called The Rock.

“The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe in it willingly.” 
- Wallace Stevens

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