‘Grand and numb’

“Self-portrait’’ (with hourglass and skull) by Johann Zoffany, circa 1776

“Now morning

snow falls like sand in an hourglass

close-up. History is pain in movement,

Burkhardt said. It was his face in the dream.

My feet touch the cold floor. I move into a day

that opens like any other in history, grand and numb.’’

From “Cold Wars Inside,’’ by Margaret Gibson (born 1944), Connecticut’s current poet laureate. She teaches at the University of Connecticut and lives in Preston, Conn.

Congregational church in Preston, in a rural/exurban part of eastern Connecticut

Owaneco, son of the Mohegan sachem Uncas, gave a confirmatory deed for the land of what became Preston in 1687. In October of that same year, the town was incorporated as Preston, named for the English city of Preston, Lancashire, England, whence came some of the white settlers.

Early trades in the area included shoe making, metal smithing and brickmaking.