I lived in love like a second skin
in which, bare before the world,
I was smooth and hard as brown marble.
One night I dramed of snakes,
of shedding papery skin, of tearing
translucent scales from my eyes
in order to grow. But today
I felt like a crab in a spiny shell,
longing to swim free, to scurry
naked along the ocean floor,
to risk being swallowed by a fish,
to lose myself in the merging
with the multitudes in blessed warmth.
I snatched a shrew from the cat,
too late, and held him over the toilet
head down like the infant Achilles.
In he went, as I stared into the swirling
until I was gone.
No comments:
Post a Comment