The Night of the Shirts

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Oh pile of white shirts who is coming
to breathe in your shapes to carry your numbers 
to appear
what hearts
are moving toward their garments here
their days
what troubles beating between arms

you look upward through
each other saying nothing has happened 
and it has gone away and is sleeping 
having told the same story
and we exist from within
eyes of the gods

you lie on your backs
and the wounds are not made 
the blood has not heard
the boat has not turned to stone 
and the dark wires to the bulb
are full of the voice of the unborn

© William Stanley Merwin