Truant Pastures -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction I -- Chalk It -- Introduction II. The Pesky Art of Harry C. Staley -- The Lives of a Shell-Shocked Chaplain:Charles McCaffery (b. 1920, d. 1978) -- Part I. Early Times -- Preliminary Report from Dr. Peters, Geo-therapist -- Penmanship (1931, 1984) -- Argument from Design (1933, 1980, 1930) -- Nocturnes (from early films) -- 1. Dog-Fight (1928) -- 2. Autopsy (1928) -- 3. Double Feature (1929) -- 4. All Quiet on the Western Front (1932) -- Services (1929) -- Biology One (1934, 1957) -- Take Us In, Mister? (1930's, 1944) -- Asymptote (1945) -- Le Bourget (1946) -- Engagement (1949, 1917) -- Part II. Therapy(1970-1974) -- Immersion -- Casualties -- Sacrifications -- Dark Cubes -- Morning Song -- Apochrypha -- About the Aeneid -- Mother Behold Thy Son -- Early Gothic -- Tidings (Christmas 1930s, 1973) -- Contractions -- Ex-Capt. McCaffery -- Fr. Charles Visits Athens -- Offertory -- Caw -- Paradoxology -- Voltages and a Fading Coal -- Part III. Last Years and Nursing Home -- Final Diagnosis -- Fish, Two Grown-Ups, Christ (1975) -- The Unknown General: Souvenirs (1978) -- Viaticum (1979) -- Person-To-Person (1979) -- Abortions (1979) -- Parakeet and Pilot (1979) -- Halloween -- Late Winters -- 1. This Cold -- 2. That Year's Moon -- In the Nursing-Home -- 1. The Senile General in the Garden -- 2. The Senile General Contemplates a Snail -- 3. The Senile General Remembers High School -- 4. McCaffery's Solitaire (Nurse's notes) -- 5. Transfusions -- 6. McCaffery's Bardo -- 7. McCaffery's Karma -- The Final Flight -- All One Breath -- THOMAS KELLY -- Fourth Commandment -- Early Mission -- Sniper -- Beyond Victory -- Puberty -- First Will and Testament -- Tom Kelly's Journal: Two Kills -- Entreaty ['45] -- Nostalgia Bar -- Valor -- PROFESSOR KELLY -- Invocation -- A Letter from Tom Kelly, Sr.

Snorkeling -- The Rat -- Kelly and Some Graves -- Obese as Buddha -- Interrogating the Ph.D.-Proposal -- Puntheism -- Lacanagain -- About Lower Case -- Tom Kelly Mimics R-b-rts-n D-v-s -- Museum -- Construing Aliquis -- Never Say Dido -- Rest Energy and the Doe -- About His Grandson -- Pneumatics -- Convalescent -- A Sermon Kelly Never Heard -- Waiting for Beckett -- Coma -- Waking Towards the Last December -- Elegy for Thomas Kelly -- CAIN AND OTHER RELATIVES -- Cain -- I Slew Abel -- Two Meals -- Cute Kelly's Semi-Final -- Dennis (Chips) Kelly on Pension -- Uncle Gus Kelly -- 1. Spring 1938 -- 2. Nuncs -- UNCLE ORVILLE AND BEATRICE -- Liturgy: Father, Fowl, and Daughter -- Principal Parts: Orville Ely -- About Beatrice -- 1. Beatrice Remembers Her Mother -- 2. Beatrice Trip -- 3. Beatrice: Feast of the Epiphany 1948 -- 4. Beatrice: Essence & Accident -- 5. Beatrice in Surgery -- 6. Hic Jacet Beatrice -- New Poems -- Sister Kelly -- Hoc Est Corpus -- The Karma of Sgt. Bruce's Grandmother (1939) -- Sgt. Bruce: Born-Again -- Clairvoyance (birthday, 1985) -- Leaves.