CAPITULATION

Be near me now; Time's weakened me; be

near me now; let me have my way once more.

Forgive, forget; you must remember me

now in my need.  Come in the door,

sit down, relax, and let us talk

of all the silence listened for

these many years.  I walk

alone in here and putter

weakly.  I'm white as chalk.

Perhaps, I mutter,

in truth, it's I,

who cannot utter

a cry,

may sigh . . . .

E.M. Schorb's work has appeared in The American Scholar, The Formalist, The Dark Horse, The Southern Review, The Sewanee Review, The Yale Review, The Chicago Review, Carolina Quarterly, The Antioch Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and Stand and Agenda in England, among others.  His collection of poems, Time and Fevers won the latest "Writer's Digest" Award for Self-Published Books in Poetry and received an Eric Hoffer Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing.  Another collection, Murderer's Day, was awarded the Verna Emery Poetry Prize and published by Purdue University Press.