The air is colder than the light in the air
No fog no smoke but the light hangs on the air
Like fog like smoke I’m walking to the bakery
On Amsterdam across from the cathedral
A middle-aged man wearing a tweed cap and
A limp blue Members Only jacket passes me
And a black face mask with a white skull
Printed on it but death is a professor everywhere
What have you learned he asks
What do you know
The Professor
Shane McCrae
Shane McCrae is the author of the poetry collections The Many Hundreds of the Scent and Cain Named the Animal: Poems as well as a memoir, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun. He lives in New York City and teaches at Columbia University.