Keeping a Roof over Your HeadAuthor(s): Richard BlessingSource: The Iowa Review, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Summer, 1978), p. 84Published by: University of IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20158920 .

Accessed: 18/06/2014 01:28

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

University of Iowa is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Iowa Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.109 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 01:28:54 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Keeping a Roof Over Your Head Richard Blessing for Lisa

On your roof, steep and glassy as an otter's slide, I lie down. The wind is full of water, and I lie down,

taking the shape of rain, trying to get through to you.

You haven't needed me for a year and a month.

Now,

this winter, patching things up, I grow heavy. Shingles crack under me like April ice. Patching these, I split others.

Above what old neighbors think, I crawl undignified and shivering, the only skater on this mossy pond. And the light comes a long way,

smelling of North, pale as Silvers running the straits

beyond Port Angeles.

I sweep away the waste of maple seeds.

Roofing tar and flashing, I fix what I can reach.

There are no guarantees, you told me once. Still, today,

keeping a roof over your head, I am happy. Listen, this work

is guaranteed, love against weather, though all around

the winter rain keeps falling its own cold way.

84

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.109 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 01:28:54 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions