1
Is this writing mine
Whose name is this
Did I underline
What I was to miss?

     2
An upheaval of leaves
Enlightens the tree
Rooted it receives
Gusts on a spree

     3
Beauty makes me sad
Makes me grieve
I see what I must leave

     4
Scaffold, gallows
Do whose will
Who hallows wood
To build, kill

     5
Blind man, anvil
No hammer strikes
Your eyes are spikes

Samuel Menashe, “At Cross Purposes” from Samuel Menashe: New and Selected Poems, edited by Christopher Ricks, published by The Library of America, 2005. Copyright © 2004 by Samuel Menashe.