The Innisfree Poetry Journal

www.innisfreepoetry.org

by Michael Gessner

In the History of Great Ideas


small acts of kindness are noticeably absent.

On a cool morning, someone—not a lover—
draws up the quilt to cover the shoulder
of another, sleeping with her back to the world.

The dry voice of the long dead,
the breath from an ancient world,
the hermit of history,
motions with a dry hand—

someone—not a lover—covered
the back of another.


Hölderlin’s Coat

for Rebecca Seiferle