Mark Strand

The One Song

by Mark Strand

I prefer to sit all day
like a sack in a chair
and to lie all night
like a stone in my bed.

When food comes
I open my mouth.
When sleep comes
I close my eyes.

My body sings
only one song;
the wind turns
gray in my arms.

Flowers bloom.
Flowers die.
More is less.
I long for more.

“The One Song” by Mark Strand from Collected Poems. © Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.