Poem after Carlos Drummond de Andrade

            “It’s life, Carlos”

It’s life that is hard: walking, sleeping, eating, loving, working and

    dying are easy.
It’s life that suddenly fills both ears with the sound of that

    symphony that forces your pulse to race and swells your

    heart near to bursting.
It’s life, not listening, that stretches your neck and opens your eyes

    and brings you into the worst weather of the winter to

    arrive once more at the house where love seemed to be in

    the air.