Poet's Choice

flung into the sky. And here

he nestles a newborn

for the camera. "You look like me,"

my son says, nudging me.

When the screen switches abruptly

to snow, Mom sighs and I flick it off. The boy sniffles

and goes over to rest his head

on the swelled stomach. "Poor Grandpa,"

he whispers. The old man

touches his hair. "Hello, small grandson," he says, startled,

swinging his head toward the mute t.v.

"Is it over?"

The poet wants to preserve what's passing, even if only on video (or in print), but the patriarch's senses are shutting down. For the poem to end with the grandfather wondering, "Is it over?" says -- with understated grace -- how soon and sadly it is.

("Special Orders" is the title poem from the most recent collection of poems by Edward Hirsch. Knopf 2008. Copyright by Edward Hirsch. Michael Milburn's "Preserved" is from "The Blessings of Motion and Silence," Copyright 2007 by Michael Milburn.)