Small Corrections

Not blood. The proper word is incident. Not hunger. Shortage. Not the taking. Loss. One ought to get the nouns exactly right. A shoe beneath a sheet. Three yellow pears gone soft beside a checkpoint. Flies at noon. The names come badly through the radio. What shall be done with all these little coats? There must be somewhere these things can go. Church steps. A football ground. The mouths of wells. The school gym, once the desks are moved. Forgive the grandmothers. They still insist a body is a body, not a count. They tear the photographs out of our hands: this one could whistle. This one hated milk. This one stole apricots. This one-- No. Look. “The earth has eaten quite enough of names.” we say, then sharpen pencils for the list.