Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FISH IN CHAINS, by JANE MILLER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FISH IN CHAINS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Along the hudson across manhattan to the triborough
Last Line: It nearly rained that's what people had to say
Subject(s): Cities; Courtship; Love - Beginnings; Love - Unrequited; New York City; Urban Life; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple


Along the Hudson across Manhattan to the Triborough
past Belmont Track and you are buried
why then walk me to the lobby of the hotel
around midnight with your having to work early?
it's not that I mind small talk in a coffee shop
not used to sleeping alone I stalled going up
the loam of Long Island ought to have held
well the dwarf yews at the headstone
clay toughened from the record snow
Broadway after the curtain lit like noon
why your patience with me in the theater
my back out? in the first perilous days
establishing relations with you
in this city piled against the sky
at the museum show you seemed bored in another world
and not even on my knees in a jammed restaurant
could I charm you into fingering my hair
breathing in your lap giddy smelling your soap

What has become of our enemy
who hugged the coast for forty days and on
Holy Thursday made port in the shelter of a reef?
Cortes asked where they came from
"Culua" they said "Mexico"
the next day the first treaty of the mainland was signed
what mysterious diplomacy?
peace fashioned gold animals
coronets some masks and smoke
out of God's hands until there is not one grain
left to put into the ground
why hang around your horror with the body
if you don't know life itself
is heavenly? I stand to lose you again
one weak kiss and a wave
this way you finally trust me
to love you unpossessedly
it nearly rained that's what people had to say





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