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Autumn 1985 • Vol. VII No. 4 • Poetry |

Stopping to Look at a Crèche in a Jewelry Store Window He Comes across a Question of Curious Import

Burros, taken to Death Valley by prospectors
and lost in the desert, by eating the few grasses
and other green things that grew there, caused the death
of wild goats that lived there and other animals.
But they don’t know they did that, being asses.

 

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Miller Williams was author, editor, or translator of twenty-eight books, including twelve volumes of poetry. He was widely recognized with national and international awards and with two honorary degrees and was inaugural poet for the second inauguration of President Clinton. Recent books of poetry include Living on the Surface: New and Selected Poems (LSU Press), Adjusting to the Light (University of Missouri Press), and Points of Departure and The Ways We Touch (both from University of Illinois Press).

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