We All Dream It

. . .we
All dream it, the dark wind crossing
The wide spaces between us.

-Robert Pinsky from Poem about People


I called him Uncle Walter,
When I was small. A big man with a face
Just like a boxer dog or a cartoon sergeant.
She told me whenever he helped a pretty woman
Try on a shoe in his store, he'd touch her calf
And ask her, "How does that feel?"

-Robert Pinsky, from Poem with Refrains