Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNET AGAINST NUCLEAR WEAPONS, by JANE MILLER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNET AGAINST NUCLEAR WEAPONS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The human sigh commuted to life imprisonment
Last Line: The suppression of rights. A snake.
Subject(s): Antinuclear Movement; Nuclear Freeze


The human sigh commuted to life imprisonment --
it's a sparrow in the hazels and pines.

A log, and so on and so forth,
anti-pastoral and realistic.

There was a dinner, you can see for yourself,
clean napkins, it might have been far worse,

entering a lit room undressed;
an unlit room, dressed.

It isn't anything you want to think about.
And went pale.

With a stranger for the first time in her life.
With a stranger for the first time in the afterlife.

The light in the room on both of them.
I'm writing on the back of a child's drawing,

a snake. Slightly protruding belly, creamy,
round breasts. Sometimes when I think of her

she remembers. Seven eyes of God
play the tape forward a little, stop it, replay it.

The phone's ringing in someone else's place.
-- I'll get it.

When she thinks of moving tonight,
the seven eyes of God in the hazels and pines

enter an unlit room, a little
pale on the back of a child's drawing,

slightly protruding belly, and realistic.
It might have been far.

She remembers a human sigh against
the suppression of rights. A snake.





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