December 2002
by James Merrill
The question was an academic one.
Andrey Sergeyvitch, rising sharp at two,
Would finally write that letter to his three
Sisters still in the country. Stop at four,
Drink tea, dress elegantly and, by five,
Be losing money at the Club des Six.
In Pakistan, a band of outraged Sikhs
Would storm an embassy (the wrong one)
And spend the next week cooling off in five
Adjacent cells. These clearly were but two
Vital details -- though nobody cared much for
The future by that time, except us three.
You, Andree Meraviglia, not quite three,
Left Heidelberg. Year, 1936.
That same decade you, Lo Ping, came to the fore
In the Spiritual Olympics, which you won.
My old black self I crave indulgence to
Withhold from limelight, acting on a belief I've
Lived by no less, no more, than by my five
Senses. Enough that circus music (BOOM-two-three)
Coursed through my veins. I saw how Timbuctoo
Would suffer an undue rainfall, 2.6
Inches. How in all of Fairbanks, won-
Der of wonders, no polkas would be danced, or for
That matter no waltzes or rumbas, although four
Librarians, each on her first French 75,
Would do a maxixe (and a snappy one).
How, when on Lucca's greenest ramparts, three-
Fold emotion prompting Renzo to choose from six
Older girls the blondest, call her tu,
It would be these blind eyes hers looked into
Widening in brief astonishment before
Love drugged her nerves with blossoms drawn from classics
Of Arab draftsmanship -- small, ink-red, five-
Petaled blossoms blooming in clusters of three.
How she would want to show them to someone!
But one by one they're fading. I am too.
These three times thirteen lines I'll write down for
Fun, some May morning between five and six.
Walk away from Omelas.