University of Virginia Library

Reminded Again

And so, we are reminded again
of the land in winter.

And of New England houses,
houses with square, classic
windows, windows without
shutters, without shades, so that
one can always see the land and
know it.

And houses where children are
nearly strangers to their parents,
where children, like young lions,
are taught to kill, where love is not
a gift but a prize — a prize for
showing that one is learning to kill
well.

The land, especially in winter,
and men, even those closest to us,
are all in their very nature and in
their own ways, our enemies.

The consolation, thankfully, is
our separateness — in aloofness,
which is a bad word for privacy,
of freedom.

We live alone in our own houses
or not at all.