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David Wagoner


Alexandra and the Spiders

Because she wanted the girl next door as a friend, Five-year-old Alexandra helped her mother Make spiders out of crackers and peanut butter With pretzel-stick legs and bulging raisin eyes. And her father helped her carry a plate of them To the stran [...]


He broke past the corners Of our eyes before we could see, before We could quite catch Sight of him already beyond The fence and the next yard and back Again in full flight, the sharp-shinned Hawk, an amber and slate streak Through the morning air af [...]

In the Dream House

My father, having changed From his comfortable well-worn Once-in-a-lifetime tweeds, Which he never owned, wears now As the man of the dream house A flower in his silk lapel And stands poised by my mother Who is radiantly younger In the dress he never [...]

How Lies-In-The-Water Became Seaweed

She had no sister. Her brothers would tease her In the woods, in the cranberry marshes. They would touch     her. They would follow her, teasing. They would pull her hair, So she cut it off and went to play in the sea. They followed her. She swam [...]


It flies through sand and shale under the ground Among stones, through stone, Through quartz and gold, down granite, through black rivers (Its underworldly wind), Through bones and shells dust-bedded in dry seas, Through crystal, through clay And pum [...]

The Escape From Monkey Island

For years they had looked at trees. They would sit all day On stones, surrounded by water, and watch trees. Then a branch in a storm at night came crackling Down to bridge their moat, and they crossed over And climbed those trees and waited for dayli [...]