Like a child, the earth’s going to sleep,
or so the story goes.
But I’m not tired, it says.
And the mother says, You may not be tired but I’m tired—
You can see it in her face, everyone can.
So the snow has to fall, sleep has to come.
Because the mother’s sick to death of her life
and needs silence.
Copyright © 2009 by Louise Glück, A Village Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
First Snow
Louise Glück