You know that it is there, lair
where the bear ceases
for a time even to exist.
Crawl in. You have at last killed
enough and eaten enough to be fat
enough to cease for a time to exist.
Crawl in. It takes talent to live at night, and scorning
others you had that talent, but now you sniff
the season when you must cease to exist.
Crawl in. Whatever for good or ill
grows within you needs
you for a time to cease to exist.
It is not raining inside
tonight. You know that it is there. Crawl in.
 
Copyright © 2005 by Frank Bidart. From Star Dust. Reprinted with permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Poems by This Author

An American in Hollywood by Frank Bidart
California Plush by Frank Bidart
The only thing I miss about Los Angeles
For the Twentieth Century by Frank Bidart
Bound, hungry to pluck again from the thousand
If See No End In Is by Frank Bidart
Love Incarnate by Frank Bidart
To all those driven berserk or humanized by love
Queer by Frank Bidart
Lie to yourself about this and you will
The Old Man at the Wheel by Frank Bidart
The Yoke by Frank Bidart
don't worry I know you're dead
To the Dead by Frank Bidart