Love's Last Poem by Christian Wiman

Love's last urgency is earth
and grief is all gravity

and the long fall always
back to earliest hours

that exist nowhere
but in one's brain.

From the hard-packed
pile of old-mown grass,

from boredom, from pain,
a boy's random slash

unlocks a dark ardor
of angry bees

that link the trees
and block his way home.

I like to hold him holding me,
mystery mastering fear,

so young, standing unstung
under what survives of sky.

I learned too late how to live.
Child, teach me how to die.