Sometimes the Evening Comes to You Like This

I don’t know who these women are

or why they’re in each other’s arms

or whom or what they’re sitting on,

or if the whole or half of it remotely charms,

but all of it and them came to me just now,

gradually, through this generous extended

evening, forming a melodious mélange,

patiently regarding me with clarity and pity:

as if I were a beggar on the sidewalk in the city,

and they had come to find me,

kindly bearing alms. The soundtrack

was the Second Symphony of Brahms.

.