Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE QUARREL, by KAREN SWENSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE QUARREL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You sit behind your coffee
Last Line: Lurches a path across the table.
Subject(s): Quarrels; Arguments; Disagreements


You sit behind your coffee.
I sit behind mine.
Our eyes are inside us.

Silence lies stale between us
on this morning whose heat is rent
by the singular shrill of a cicada.

Our quarrel is stale as a warped slice of bread.
Oppressive as this August morning is our love,
which, mute as a moth with a torn wing,
lurches a path across the table.





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