Ruth Bavetta

How He Is

He wanders through thickets
of the past, drifting

about in a orchard of friends.
Few of them have names.

He has his books,
his magazines, spilling

over the edge and yet
he cannot find his breath.

He has shrunken in the dark, in secret
until it was no longer secret.

 Ruth Bavetta is a poet and artist whose poems have been published in Rhino, Rattle, Nimrod, Tar River Poetry, North American Review, and many others. Her books are Embers on the Stairs (Moontide Press)and Fugitive Pigments (FutureCycle Press) and Flour, Water, Salt (FutureCycle Press.) No Longer at this Address (Aldritch Press) is forthcoming.