Lyric’s Storytelling

Glück: How quiet it is

now that life has triumphed.

It’s summer in her poem,

Which often mentions dust.

Consider the student

You were, that one student

You knew, too much like you,

Who never had students,

Who still wants to ask, What

Does she mean by saying

It’s quiet, “now that life

Has triumphed”? Well, student,

That’s not what you’re supposed

To ask. It’s not for us

To tell you, either, but

We can tell you this much—

For us it makes the rest

Of the poem fall away,

All of it, out of mind,

Except something about

Dust, an old photograph,

A god and a nanny—

No wait, no—her mother—

In a summer garden.

Because that line, student,

That line, two lines really,

Gets to us. Life’s triumph,

It suggests, to us, is

Death. Small lives might struggle

Against life, best they can.

Life’s just too big for them.

It’s all over now. Life

Triumphed, and it’s quiet.

As with all life’s triumphs,

That’s the end to expect,

Garden gone quiet. Yes.

Oh. I thought she maybe

Meant the war was over,

So, not death. That, too, yes.