The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out
(Another hid his eyes behind his wing)
Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
From satin cases poured in rich profusion;
In vials of ivory and coloured glass
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,
Unguent, powdered, or liquid—troubled, confused
And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air
That freshened from the window, these ascended
In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.
Huge sea-wood fed with copper
Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone,
In which sad light a carvéd dolphin swam.
Above the antique mantel was displayed
As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king
So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale
Filled all the desert with inviolable voice
And still she cried, and still the world pursues,
‘Jug Jug’ to dirty ears.
And other withered stumps of time
Were told upon the walls; staring forms
Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.
‘My nerves are bad tonight. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.
What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
I never know what you are thinking. Think.’
I think we are in rats’ alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.
‘What is that noise?’
The wind under the door.
‘What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?’
Nothing again nothing.
‘Do
‘You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember
‘Nothing?’
I remember
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
‘Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?’
But
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag—
It’s so elegant
So intelligent
‘What shall I do now? What shall I do?’
‘I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street
‘With my hair down, so. What shall we do tomorrow?
‘What shall we ever do?’
The hot water at ten.
And if it rains, a closed car at four.
And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.
When Lil’s husband got demobbed, I said—
I didn’t mince my words, I said to her myself,
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Now Albert’s coming back, make yourself a bit smart.
He’ll want to know what you done with that money he gave you
To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.
You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set,
He said, I swear, I can’t bear to look at you.
And no more can’t I, I said, and think of poor Albert,
He’s been in the army four years, he wants a good time,
And if you don’t give it him, there’s others will, I said.
Oh is there, she said. Something o’ that, I said.
Then I’ll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look.
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
If you don’t like it you can get on with it, I said.
Others can pick and choose if you can’t.
But if Albert makes off, it won’t be for lack of telling.
You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique.
(And her only thirty-one.)
I can’t help it, she said, pulling a long face,
It’s them pills I took, to bring it off, she said.
(She’s had five already, and nearly died of young George.)
The chemist said it would be all right, but I’ve never been the same.
You are a proper fool, I said.
Well, if Albert won’t leave you alone, there it is, I said,
What you get married for if you don’t want children?
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon,
And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot—
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight.
Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight.
Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.
A Game of Chess
My queen protects me
She moves every which way
She cannot castle Kings only
She can be sacrificed, replaced
And the game goes on
The pawns
To be sacrificed
Too many get in the way
The king wants some
More than I imagined
The creek and the land never giving up
Changing course without changing destination
Building quiet places with
Air that breathes
Air better than any perfume
Never stale Never on sale
Never too sweet or too bitter
Doesn’t stop US
Light sparkles in the room
littles laugh, spin, play chess
elders stir and sift, chop, talk
Cinnamon, cardamon, chocolate, pecans
Ancestors, invisible, present, protecting
Loss wrapped in meaning
Ancestors adoring
Items so precious they incarnate
They survived even this
The littles not so little anymore
Upon your form, the lashes of the flowers
Responded to my touch,
The murmur of streams
Redirected with the hand placed rocks
Telling different dreams
She came back from Iraq, Camouflaged
Different, Quieter, Jumpier
Visions hallucinations of noise
No chance to buy the toys
They made the choice before she left
He lost his job for the fifth time
He blames her for all that happened
He met her off the plane
Teddy bear in hand
“Hey, I have a plan”
Ten months later
A child born The mother torn
Her name: Tirzah
Sargent unable to leave army
She needs The childcare
The only sinless intercourse
Is to produce children
Birth control is an act against
The only medication
With no name and every name
The Pill
Less pregnancies Less children
Women going to work
Less children dying
Rare earth chemicals in demand
Up by 1 degree Goes the land
They began to speak
She lay completely naked on
The barren ground
One of millions
Legs spread with a grenade
Between her legs
Rape story so old so often told
And untold unable to send
Women and men made to bend
And break stay silent rape
Coniraya and Cavillaca, Vilca perpetuate
Guamansuri seduced Cautaguan pregnant,
The mother dies the nation thrives
Ometecuhtli/Omecihuati
Cipactli destroyed, universe the new toy
Resting on the back of a turtle, Iroquois
Let’s face it
The gods got away with it
Sometimes chopped up or made to wander
Their offspring often rulers of heavens and earth
Time for a new birth before checkmate
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