memory for evan and gina

sour smell, read aloud in the heaps of the kitchen table
winter on the north side of the mountain, coffee
by the fire, early surrendering snow
and not enough wood cut

together, three together in the
woods, now field, sawing logs, building
piles of limbs under every sky
each night sets earlier, fiddling about
over the stove, water boiling while reading
aloud together, gas lamp

reading, I read to one and then
another, laughing, burning
wood by our hands
reading aloud and watching one and
then another slowly fade, softer and
softer footsteps, chairs left in place
reading aloud, gas light over
the heaped kitchen table, tea
cup, woodstove

reading aloud, I read to one and then
the other, I read woodstove, I
read burn piles and log skids, I
read skies, I read boiled water, heaps
of kitchen, I read faded friends, I
read quiet closed eyes,
thin breath, I
read