David Wagoner Archives - Evanston Public Library

Casting Aspersions by David Wagoner

He told me I was casting aspersions on him,

and because he was sensitive and literary,

I knew he must be telling me I was sprinkling

unholy water on him, was sailing a phony

barb-hooked lure among his lily pads,

was gathering a lousy bunch

of actors to make a bad movie about him,

was pouring hot metal into molds

to anchor some satirical bobble-heads

that looked like him, was publishing

his rotten horoscope and crooked fortune

and knotting them, stitching them, looping them,

catching them up — but I wasn’t, and I said so

right to his face, and he began to cast

his own aspersions on the character

he thought I was playing in his private drama.

fisticuffs

This poem was selected by Russell J. (Adult Services Librarian)

Walking around the Block with a Three-Year-Old by David Wagoner

She sees a starling legs-up in the gutter.

She finds an earthworm limp and pale in a puddle.

What’s wrong with them? she says. I tell her they’re dead.

She scowls at me. She stares at her short shadow

And makes it dance in the road. She shakes its head.

Daddy, you don’t look pretty, she says. I agree.

She stomps on a sewer grid where the slow rain

Is vanishing. Do you want to go down there?

I tell her no. Neither do I, she says.

She picks up a stone. This is an elephant.

Because it’s heavy, smooth, slate gray, and hers,

I tell her it’s very like an elephant.

We’re back. The starling is gone. Where did it go?

She says. I tell her I don’t know, maybe

A cat took it away. I think it’s lost.

I tell her I think so too. But can’t you find it?

I tell her I don’t think so. Let’s go look.

I show her my empty hands, and she takes one.

This poem was selected by Russell J. (Readers’ Services)

Tag: David Wagoner