Not spent those bloodshot friendships those
soul-marriages sealed and torn
those smiles of pain
I told her a mouthfulAdrienne Rich Not spent those bloodshot friendships those soul-marriages sealed and torn those smiles of pain I told her a mouthful I shut my mouth against him Throat thick with tears how words sound when you swallow –and under the roof of the mouth long stroke reaching from the tongue’s root No, I was not living with her at the time At the time I was not living with him, at the time we were living together I was living with neither of them –was dwelling you could say But as for living at that time we were all living together with many others for whom living was precisely the question
Haven’t seen evenings like that since vesuvian emerald to brass dissolving –a sentence you’d waited for taken back half-spoken– Luxury even then maybe evenings like those
May 17, 2007
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Adrienne Rich Adrienne Rich's most recent book is The School Among the Ruins: Poems 2000-2004. A selection of her essays, Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations, appeared in 2003. She edited Muriel Rukeyser's Selected Poems for the Library of America. She is a recipient of the National Book Foundation's 2006 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, among other awards. Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth: Poems 2004-2006 will be published in October 2007.