Living In Sin

A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)

She had thought the studio would keep itself;

no dust upon the furniture of love.

Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal,

the panes relieved of grime. A plate of pears,

a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat

stalking the picturesque amusing mouse

had risen at his urging.

Not that at five each separate stair would writhe

under the milkman’s tramp; that morning light

so coldly would delineate the scraps

of last night’s cheese and three sepulchral bottles;

that on the kitchen shelf amoong the saucers

a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own–

envoy from some village in the moldings…

Meanwhile, he, with a yawn,

sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard,

declared it out of tune, shrugged at the mirror,

rubbed at his beard, went out for cigarettes;

while she, jeered by the minor demons,

pulled back the sheets and made the bed and found

a towel to dust the table-top,

and let the coffee-pot boil over on the stove.

By evening she was back in love again,

though not so wholly but throughout the night

she woke sometimes to feel the daylight coming

like a relentless milkman up the stairs.

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• Teacher by Poetry In English
• Sleep by Poetry In English
• Ode To A Harmonica by Poetry In English
• Intruder by Poetry In English
• Do You Know What Its Like by Poetry In English
• Hellcat by Fledermaus
• Yours & Mine poem – Alice Fulton by Poetry In English
• Woman In Front Of Poster Of Herself poem – Alice Notley by Poetry In English
• Velocity Of Money poem – Allen Ginsberg by Poetry In English
• The White Cliffs by Poetry In English
• The Next Chance by Poetry In English
• The Melancholy of Birth by Poetry In English
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• The Internet Romance by Poetry In English
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• The Terms In Which I Think Of Reality poem – Allen Ginsberg by Poetry In English
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• Teachers Day special by Poetry In English
• Succeeding Sentiments. by Poetry In English
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