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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WEDDING BED IN MANGKUTANA, by KAREN SWENSON Poet's Biography First Line: In the village guesthouse Last Line: From the same soil. Subject(s): Indonesia; Marriage; Sex; Dutch East Indies; Weddings; Husbands; Wives | |||
In the village guesthouse it fills the room it stands in, a statement of human belief in idyllic desire. Curlicued rills of wrought iron are festooned with lace mosquito net thrown back from its dark, welcoming cave where the conjunction of improbabilities occurs - a boy, knowing cows and goats, is to be patient, tender; a girl, a childbirth witness, is to be responsive, passionate. From this seedbed, despite withered harvests, children dead of malaria, on sheets and pillows strewn with dainty confetti of embroidered flowers, belief would have desire sprout itself out of spit and semen, flourish taller than stunted tapioca and corn from the same soil. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A BLESSING FOR A WEDDING by JANE HIRSHFIELD A SUITE FOR MARRIAGE by DAVID IGNATOW ADVICE TO HER SON ON MARRIAGE by MARY BARBER THE RABBI'S SON-IN-LAW by SABINE BARING-GOULD |
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