Close close all night the lovers keep

Much has been made this month of what would have been Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday, had he lived beyond 2004.  Much less has been made of another dead centenarian, Elizabeth Bishop, who also would have turned 100 this week, had she not died in 1979. She was an orphan from New England who became America's poet laureate in 1949. A graduate of  Vassar, she inherited enough to live independently and travel widely, especially in South America, later taking up teaching posts. She was gay, and wrote of longing and loss. Her most well-known poem is probably “The Waiting Room,” but as it's rather long, I chose this one.

Close close all night
the lovers keep.
They turn together
in their sleep,

close as two pages
in a book
that read each other
in the dark.

Each knows all
the other knows,
learned by heart
from head to toes.