SOMETIMES AND AFTER

Yet sometimes, I would sweep the floor,
I would put daisies in a tumbler,
I would have long dreams before, long day-dreams after;

there would be no gauntleted knock on the door,
or tap-tap with a riding crop,
no galloping here and back;

but the latch would softly lift,
would softly fall,
dusk would come slowly,

and even dusk could wait
till night encompassed us;
dawn would come gracious, not too soon,
day would come late,
and the next day and the next,
while I found pansies to take the place of daisies,

and a spray of apple-blossom after that,
no calendar of fevered hours,
Carthago delenda est and the Tyrian night.

AMENTI

If there is urgency, there is no fear,
hail, yes, but not farewell,

Amenti flowered long before Eden's tree;
his hand invites the delta underneath

the half-transparent folds of the soft pleats,
and does not tear but draws the veil aside;

then both his hands grasp my bare thighs,
and clutch and tighten, bird-claws or a beast

that would tear open, tear apart, but keep
the appetite at bay, to gratify a greater hunger

or to anticipate deeper, adjustment, a greater hunger
yet his commanding knees keep my knees locked,

even while his virility soothes and quickens,
till, in agony, my own hands clutch and tear,

and my lips part, as he releases me,
and my famished mouth opens

and knows his hunger and his power;
and this is the achievement and we know the answer

to ritual and to all philosophy,
in the appeasement of the ravished flower.

Do you remember?

He dragged me through the hedge,
"you used to laugh", he said, "Lizeth,
laugh and forget, be glad";

he kissed my face, "my flower, you are too pale,
I'll get you eglantine and the red pinks,
that we called sops-in-wine -- do you remember?"

A bird whistled and a bird replied,
"so you see, everywhere, two and two", he said,
"under the blossoming trees, the chestnut-spire,

the pear; you must have missed the garden,
that long year. London was always drear;"
he drew me down beside him on the grass,

and he unfastened shoulder-clasp and band,
and cupped my breasts within his firm young hands,
"so here," he said, "are peonies -- and here-- no rose is half so
dear."