FULL MOON ON TOP OF A CHAMPAGNE PALM'S TIP

Exhaustion at Sunset
by Mark Strand

The empty heart comes home from a busy day at the office.
And what is the empty heart to do but empty itself of emptiness.
Sweeping out the unsweepable takes an effort of mind,
the fruitless exertion of faculties already burdened.

Poor empty heart, old before its time,
how it struggles to do what the mind tells it to do.
But the struggle comes to nothing.
The empty heart cannot do what the mind commands.
It sits in the dark, daydreams,
and the emptiness grows.