Panic in your face, you write questions
to ask him. When he arrives,
you are serene, your fear
unbetrayed. How unlike me you are.
After the dance,
I see your happiness; he holds
your hand. Though you barely speak,
your body pulses messages I can read
all too well. He kisses you goodnight,
his body moving toward yours, and yours
responding. I am frightened, guard my
tongue for fear my mother will pop out
of my mouth. “He is not shy,” I say. You giggle,
a little girl again, but you tell me he
kissed you on the dance floor. “Once?”
I ask. “No, a lot.”
We ride through rain-shining 1 a.m.
streets. I bite back words which long
to be said, knowing I must not shatter your
moment, fragile as a spun-glass bird,
you, the moment, poised on the edge of
flight, and I, on the ground, afraid.
Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Copyright © 1995
End of the poem
15 random poems
- On Teaching The Young by Yvor Winters
- Владимир Высоцкий – Случай
- On A Spaniel, Called Beau, Killing A Young Bird by William Cowper
- Валерий Брюсов – Февраль
- Robert Burns: Bonie Peg-a-Ramsay:
- Владимир Маяковский – Новогодние поздравления (РОСТА №704)
- Sonnet Vii
- On Pedigree. From Epicharmus by William Cowper
- The Voice of Robert Desnos by Robert Desnos
- Жан Расин – Решенье принято, час перемены пробил
- The Lake Isle poem – Ezra Pound poems
- The Evenèn Star O’ Zummer by William Barnes
- Mother, I Cannot Mind My Wheel by Sappho
- The Scissors-Grinder by Vachel Lindsay
- Song Of The Master And Boatswain by W H Auden
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
