from Strawberige
Variation On the Word Sleep
Margaret Atwood
I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head
and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear
I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in
I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.
Entree des vierges sages (Entrance of the wise Virgins) by Felix Labisse, 1963. Oil on canvas, 73 x 54cm.
Definitely A favourite
(via kirgiakos)
Do me a favor and take
Your love, take it
Out and let it dry, let it ferment
and maybe then, but only then,
Maybe
Will it be enough for me, strong enough
For me, a love fond enough of me
To leave me spiraling
After just one sip
Grow strong, strong
Enough to make me forget, make me
Yearn for the chance to make
Love, sweet love, make me forget
That your love is not sweet
Or better yet take it
Out and tie it up, your love
suffocate it, a rainbow asphyxiated let the colors seep
And odors drain, let the insides rot until the sweet smell
Passes by my window and I know that your love
Is no longer.
You
Were what you are not now, now you are what you were not, and you are
Open and ever-ripening and far less than what you may become or be
Within the future’s bewildering reality-Delmore Schwartz
The sun loves me so
he infuses like ski poles
into my snow white skin, his rays
invade every inch I dare uncover and I beg
for more.
Lower my back to the earth and I feel him, the sun
above me, his warmth
make even the back of my eyelids glow.
Seep out through my pores,
beads of perspiration
grow like cancer cells, leave me flooded
in bliss until he rises from
above me and darkness expands,
snow white skin
crisped pink.