Two Songs

A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)

1.

Sex, as they harshly call it,

I fell into this morning

at ten o’clock, a drizzling hour

of traffic and wet newspapers.

I thought of him who yesterday

clearly didn’t

turn me to a hot field

ready for plowing,

and longing for that young man

pierced me to the roots

bathing every vein, etc.

All day he appears to me

touchingly desirable,

a prize one could wreck one’s peace for.

I’d call it love if love

didn’t take so many years

but lust too is a jewel

a sweet flower and what

pure happiness to know

all our high-toned questions

breed in a lively animal.

2.

That “old last act”!

And yet sometimes

all seems post coitum triste

and I a mere bystander.

Somebody else is going off,

getting shot to the moon.

Or a moon-race!

Split seconds after

my opposite number lands

I make it–

we lie fainting together

at a crater-edge

heavy as mercury in our moonsuits

till he speaks–

in a different language

yet one I’ve picked up

through cultural exchanges…

we murmur the first moonwords:

Spasibo. Thanks. O.K.

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• Do You Know What It’s Like by Poetry In English
• That devil of a man by Poetry In English
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• About Face poem – Alice Fulton poems | Poetry Monster by Poetry In English
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• Those Born In Obscure Times poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
• Those Born In Obscure Times poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
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• Street Circus poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
• The Snowy Spring Is Raging Mad poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
• On the Field of Kulicovo poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
• I Wait For You… poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
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