The Last 4 Things

Kate Greenstreet

A sample poem from the book

from ‘The Last 4 Things’

To leave home without making the bed,
it’s like building a house of cards.

You have to know what you’re doing.
Or be lucky. Or just very quiet.

I have had a Letter from another World . . .

To speak of method. Empathy. Our times, time.
Disappears with me. Sleep a minute.

Empathy is marked with
incomprehensible corrections. The camera must be open.

I know what I tell myself. Sometimes he seems to be the camera
(who we will be later).

Do you like boats? I see you around boats.
Built around an unseen principle: to float.
He’s come such a long way to think.

To bring to a stop and keep standing at the edge, when death won’t
take you. Hundreds of children.

The camera turns the corner. We’re never any closer.
Sometimes he is the camera.