From next (1988), "lives" Summary

This poem plays with the concept of previous incarnation, previous lives. It speaks from the point of view of someone answering a friend or client who has inquired about past lives; the subtitle indicates that the questioner is named "lu."

In the first stanza, the poet addresses lu and tells her she was in a past life, a simple fisherman who worked hard all his life but still didn't make ends meet. His son was swimming, in trouble, close to drowning, and the fisherman swam toward him, trying to rescue him, but drowned.

In the second stanza, lu was a doctor, resentful, living in an unpleasantly cold climate. This doctor turned his or her bitterness into hate and criminality, to murder, eventually being punished by death for the crimes.

The final verse pokes a little...