Page 43 - BRIDGES - ISSUE 7

Margaret Atwood

«« Foetcard

Variations on the Variations on the I m thinking of you. What else can I
'
say?
Word Love y .fr > Vi O \e The palm trees on the reverse
? } .l& Z ϊύί.: · are a delusion; so is the pink sand.
'
What we have are the usual
' I would like to watch you sleeping ,
This is a word we use to plug ¥· /ʤ · fractured coke bottles and the smell
holes with. It’s the right size for those which may not happen ,
warm I would like to watch you, of backed- up drains, too sweet,
blanks in speech , for.those red heart- sleeping. I would like to sleep of rot, which we have also.
like a mango on the verge :
shaped vacancies on the page that look with you, to enter The air clear sweat, mosquitos m
nothing your sleep as r its smooth dark wave & their tracks; birds, blue & elusive.
like real hearts. Add lace slides over my head Ί
°
an A y u carl se Time comes in waves here, a sickness,
it. We insert it " also in the one empty and walk with you through that lucent one
space on the printed form V i wavering forest of bluegreen leaves day after the other rolling on;
that comes with no instructions. There with its watery sun & three moons I move up , its called ;
· . · m
are whole towards the cave where you must de- awake, then down into the uneasy ..i
magazines with not much in them scend, · » j r nights but never 2
but the word love, .you can towards your worst fear forward. The roosters crow . a
».
rub it all over your body and you I would like to give you the silver _ Hi
. ....
^ J J , ip' - . .. .. . . , , ** . . r
forhours before dawn, and a prodded
.
can cook with it too. How do we know. branch, the * small white flower, the one
0
. . , , *3Ά jJL Z 4- T ; f child howls & howls
+ .
MI
it isnt what goes on at the cool word that will protect you v - , ; V, , ,
£ . I . .
debaucheries of slugs under damp - ··>- . * ; from the grief at the center on the pocked road to school ,
. .
*
. Μ "
th hId
c
th
^
pieces of cardboard? As for the weed- of your dream, from the grief ere app two prisoners , 3
.
Tv
seedlings nosing their tough snouts up at the center. I would like to follow ^
J
,
,
ft · · ?
among the lettuces, they shout it. Y : you up the long stairway ' % their heads shaved by bayonets, & ten
-
·
,1 ·
vj ·
Love! Love! sing the soldiers, raising again & become - / fi ; TV , . , ^ ,
v :
their glittering knives in salute. the boat that would row you back of queasy chicks. Each spring
carefully, a flame mi there’s a race of cripples , from the
m
store
jfi
Then there’s the two 4r * in two cupped hands m: · »&3 ¹ the church. This is the sort of junk
:Ί
‘
J
to
,
of us. This word & to where your body lies I carry with me; and a clipping J
·
is far too short for us, it has only beside me, and you enter about democracy from the local paper.
four letters, too sparse! it as easily as breathing in Outside the window
to fill those deep bare % % ? M they ’re building the damn hotel, Hi
vacuums between the stars ' <Φ ' . ' ; v I would like to be the air n 4
is :
that press on us with their deafness. that inhabits you for a moment nail by hail, someone’s . • - m
I ? » ·
: ·; · , · '
It’s not love we don’t wish only. I would like to be that unnoticed crumbling dream. A universe that in-
cludes you
to fall into, but that fear , / & that necessary. can’t be all bad, but
this word is not enough but it will · : does it? At this distance
.τ
have to do. It ’s a single 5 Mi : ίπ· pH you’re a mirage, a glossy image
vowel in this metallic ImYsda : v- * · l
*
silence, a mouth that says J 3£ ' if * i · fixed in the posture
of the last time i saw you.
0 again and again in wonder ni ; ; Turn you over, there’s the place
nr
and pain, a breath, a finger J# for the address. Wish you were
grip on a cliffside. You can m | | ϊ: : here. Love comes
hold on or let go. | Y in waves like the ocean, a sickness
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Ί :
!: which goes on
sources 1 m & on, a hollow cave
http://www.wcb.nct/owtoad/ % in the head, filling and pounding , a kicked
http:// wwAv.moohead.msud.edu/chcnault/atwookhtm ear.
http:// wwAV ' .theatlantic.com/unbound/poctry/atlpocts/atwo9505.htm
The Canadian & World Encyclopedia ©McClelland & Stewart Inc
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http://huizcn.dds.nl/ libertc/index.htm Selected by Nelly Zafeiriadou
http://cnglishwww.humnct.ucla.edu/individuals/mcgraw/slcep/POEMPAGE.HTM
http://www.web.nct/owtoad/lecture.html
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