I
Why should I tell you anything true?
Why should I tell you anything?
You're not paying me.
i don't do this for money.
Hold out your hand,
your empty hand.
I see.
if I told you what you hold
in the lines in your hand
which as I said is empty,
is full of emptiness,
you'd be annoyed. Oh surely
not, you'd say, You're far too
dismal. Too severe.
I'm doing this to help you.
What would you prefer?
You'd like me to amuse you?
Do do some jigs, or pranks?
I lack the airiness,
I lack the feathers.
That's not what I do.
What I do: I see
in darkness. I see
darkness. I see you.
Margaret Atwood, The Door, Virago Press, 2007
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Variation On The Word Sleep
ReplyDeleteI 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 as 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
Another version/vision by Margaret Atwood*
Telling the truth, by the way...