Epithalamion for Tyler
I thought I knew something
about loneliness but
you go to the stockyards
buy a pig’s ear and sew
it on your couch. That, you
said, is my best friend—we
have spirited talks. Even
then I thought: a man of
such exquisite emptiness
(and you cultivated it so)
is ground for fine flowers.
—James Tate
—found in The Lost Pilot (1967)