Marianne Moore

My father used to say "Superior people never make long visits."

Beauty is everlasting

and dust is for a time.

The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence;

not in silence, but restraint.

What is our innocence,

what is our guilt? All are

naked, none is safe.

This is a strange fraternity — these sea lions and land lions,

land unicorns and sea unicorns;

the lion civilly rampant,

tame and concessive like the long-tailed bear of Ecuador —

the lion standing up against this screen of woven air

which is the forest:

the unicorn also, on its hind legs in reciprocity.