To ____________
There is no reason
for me to keep counting
how long it has been
since you were here
alive one morning
as though I were
letting out the string
of a kite one day at a time
over my finger
when there is no string
“To _________” from W.S. Merwin’s Present Company (2005), is reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.
Please see W. S. Merwin’s Interview under “W. S. Merwin, Interviews with Writers”