1. Letter on his birthday
August twenty-fifth: My Friend, it was
The tenth of June I wrote you last, because
The Colonel's letters, growing weak and few,
Had shown a sentiment that was undue
One of his spirit. The years had rowed behind
Him on the lake, too far astern; his mind,
A judge’s, long had found a simpleness
In water and canoe that made it less
A hard thing to be old; it left him stern
And kind -- a runner spelled -- to turn
An anchored loyalty to floating dry
The sieved brain of his wife, my
Grandmother. Her eyes were wide
And tired of dying. Fifteen months astride
A dervish carrousel, her bones would not
Unstirrup, rode aslant, as if just shot
But not considering a tumble.
Yet,
It was not sudden; seeing, he had met
The signs in her as they had clowned
Her slowly into bitterness, and found
He did not quite believe them; so he went
On fishing, kept his log, until she spent
Her knotted thread, let go her hold and clamped
Her mind and bedroom shut to him. She stamped,
Slept, shrilled that he kept girls in the broom
Closet. His letters only said the room
Did not stay shut and that he stayed there, fed
And dressed her, and slept some on the pale bed
Of his. This lasted for a year; this spring
She was committed. Tired, he said the thing
That changed his mind was that she did not know
Him or my father. She had calmed; and though
She still accused him, now, he wrote us, she
Would like just having people around; any
Nurse would do as well as he. This from
Her husband! He knew well the ragged sum
Of his own disrepair, yet said he'd take

2. His tackle and canoe out on the lake
Before the fall had brought the bass up from
Deep water.
Then his letters changed, for some
Hard things of being old had just occurred
To him. He wrote about his will -- we'd heard
Of it -- as if he meant that now we ought
To know. My cousin visited; he caught
And wrote of memories we didn't know
He had. His letters had the sound of slow
Old breathing. August twenty-fifth, the run
Of days is shorter; today his only son,
My father, sees, and sits beside him in the sun.