Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TEH LOVER, by KAREN SWENSON



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TEH LOVER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There is enough left, he says
Last Line: Come in cold and content from his quest.
Subject(s): Animals; Cats; Love Affairs; Men


There is enough left, he says -
holding the bottle up to the light -
to soak up the flux of sorrow.
The cat moans in the alley,
one old Tom out for adventure
among the moonlit angles of the alleys.
He seeks what I drink out of existence.

I don't mean women don't tempt me
with their fiddleheads of hair
loosed from croquet-hoop pins
to drift into a down cage about my head.

But I no longer want
their softness under me.
I fear the quicksand suck of lust
so I wrap myself in a blanket of booze
and am self-sufficient in the night,
while Tom tongues the ice from his paws.

Still, I would like a woman -
a high noise in the house.
There's less left in the bottle now, he says.
Maybe she would hold me
as I fumble up the stairs
helped by some young man,
and in the next room
I would hear them make love
as the cold hives about the house
and be warm in that.

I would fall asleep
into the sounds of their love and wake
to the snow draping the window,
absolved of my sex, to feed the cat
come in cold and content from his quest.





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