Office

In the dim light that seeps
through the room, the desks
appear shadowy and soft,
like large sleeping animals.

— Alan Lightman, "Einstein's Dreams"

Conversation

His talk was like
a curtain of easy rain
between me and the trees,
the light and the shadows on the road.

— Alice Munro, "Lying Under the Apple Tree"
(memoir essay from The New Yorker, 2002)