A Moment with Ruth Stone

WHAT TO DO

In someone else's house
you are not exactly at ease.
It's a matter of protocol.
That is, sequence.


There are unspoken rules.
Some of the rules are
under the rug--
so to speak.

You employ
a mechanical mouse
to investigate.

-Ruth Stone



Somehow, this poem seemed so appropriate for today's work.

Ruth Stone's What Love Comes To: New & Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2008), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. She lives in Vermont.