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Dust Devil

Mystical hysterical amalgam of earth and wind

and mind

over and of

the much-loved

dust you go

through a field I know

by broken heart

for I have learned this art

of flourishing

vanishing

wherein to live

is to move

cohesion

illusion

wild untouchable toy

called by a boy

God’s top

in a time when time stopped.

Christian Wiman is an American poet and editor of Poetry. His third volume of poetry is Every Riven Thing (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). This article ran in the September 23, 2010 issue of the magazine.

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