we know, we know

The way to begin is always the same. Hello, 

Hello. Your hand, your name. So glad, Just fine, 

and Good-bye at the end. That's every story we know, 

 

and why pretend? But lunch tomorrow? No? 

Yes? An omelette, salad, chilled white wine? 

The way to begin is simple, sane, Hello, 

 

and then it's Sunday, coffee, the Times, a slow 

day by the fire, dinner at eight or nine 

and Good-bye. In the end, this is a story we know 

 

so well we don't turn the page, or look below 

the picture, or follow the words to the next line: 

The way to begin is always the same Hello. 

 

But one night, through the latticed window, snow 

begins to whiten the air, and the tall white pine. 

Good-bye is the end of every story we know 

 

that night, and when we close the curtains, oh, 

we hold each other against that cold white sign 

of the way we all begin and end. Hello, 

Good-bye is the only story. We know, we know.  

 

[Martha Collins {1940- } 'The Story We Know' from Poetry (December 1980)]

 

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