I. BABES IN THE WOODS Dry birch logs: Blue flame and incense. Everything we need to say written in smoke Now on these burning sheets. Understand how we got here: Parachuted in from a disastrous sector Of the contemporary war. Lost our clothes in the freezing cold -- she did, so I threw mine away -- And here we are in front of the fire in the cabin. Wood enough for the week. Moon in Scorpio over the frozen lake And the wolves singing around us, Nothing to read but @3Sonnets from the Portuguese@1. Seems simple; but wait till the neighbors come over. They want to play whist -- and that's hard: holding all those cards In our hands and teeth And trying to bid while the other hand holds our blanket (And whose hand is @3that@1?) to cover what they call our nakedness -- Something that seems to us like our own selves -- Something, in the long nights, We wrap ourselves in. This game can go on a long time. Looks like we'll never win. II. GOING FOR WATER In the morning the snow is deeper And the river is sleeping a cold sleep. "Come back in summer," Water says, from somewhere in bed; "I'm going to sleep with Miss Rock the rest of the winter." Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO JOHN DONNE (2) by BEN JONSON SOUND THE LOUD TIMBREL; MIRIAM'S SONG by THOMAS MOORE THE LOWEST PLACE by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER: FEBRUARY by EDMUND SPENSER AN ARMY CORPS ON THE MARCH by WALT WHITMAN RAILWAY DREAMINGS by ALEXANDER ANDERSON |