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Author: OLDS, SHARON Matches Found: 453 Olds, Sharon Poet's Biography 453 poems available by this author 19 First Line: When we took the acid, his wife was off Last Line: Pore on my skin he closed that old couple's eyes 1954 First Line: Then dirt scared me, because of the dirt Last Line: To look into those eyes, and see the human 35/10 Poem Text First Line: Brushing out my daughter's dark Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Women 35/10 First Line: Brushing out my daughter's dark Last Line: The story of replacement Subject(s): Mothers And Daughters; Women 49 1/2 First Line: The first long month, waiting and waiting Last Line: The one past bearing, the human gone out upon its longest thread 5 CENTS A PEEK First Line: The day my class was to go to the circus Last Line: Sidelong, blindly, and shudder them at seven beats a second ADOLESCENCE First Line: When I think of my adolescence, I think Last Line: Kneeling, reaching for my life AFTER MAKING LOVE IN WINTER Poem Text First Line: At first, not even a sheet on me Subject(s): Love - Erotic AFTER MAKING LOVE IN WINTER First Line: At first, not even a sheet on me Last Line: Want to be born, I want to stay here %with you Subject(s): Erotic Love AFTER MAKING LOVE, WINTER SOLSTICE First Line: Except for the ochre face of the glow-in-the AFTER PUNISHMENT WAS DONE WITH ME Last Line: The ashes of the earth Variant Title(s): After My Mother Was Done With M AFTER THE RAPE IN OUR BUILDING First Line: The day after we heard about it Last Line: Sealed and unfruitful AIRPORT HOTEL First Line: The mother leans against the hotel window ALCATRAZ Poem Text First Line: When I was a girl, I knew I was a man Subject(s): Prisons & Prisoners; Children; Discipline; Convicts; Childhood AM AND AM NOT First Line: When I am tilted forward, brushing my teeth Last Line: Undulant one, she is dancing upright in her dream ANIMAL MUSIC First Line: The first time, my eyes were closed Last Line: Its waking dream APRIL, NEW HAMPSHIRE First Line: Outside their door, a tiny narcissus Last Line: Looking at us for the last time %on earth ARMOR Poem Text First Line: Just about at the tripled-barrelled pistol Subject(s): Arms & Armor; Mothers & Sons; Weapons; Ammunition ARMOR First Line: Just about at the triple-barreled pistol ASPIC AND BUTTERMILK Poem Text First Line: There were two foods I hated to eat, / so those were foods he like me to eat Subject(s): Food & Eating ASPIC AND BUTTERMILK First Line: There were two foods I hated to eat, %so those were foods he like me to eat Last Line: More passion for life on almost any %terms than death Subject(s): Food And Eating AT HOME First Line: Then, when he is drifting off Last Line: In the room, on every surface AT THE BAY First Line: At four in the morning, the waning crescent Last Line: Ready, the second time left to right, so you can read it AT THE HOSPITAL FOR THE PARALYZED Poem Text First Line: If I were in the wheelchair next to julia Subject(s): Hospitals; Paralysis AT THE HOSPITAL FOR THE PARALYZED First Line: If I were in the wheelchair next to julia Last Line: You, arrow of eros, once a deer-hunter Subject(s): Hospitals; Paralysis ATTEMPTED BANQUET First Line: Lugging of shellfish in coolers, boiling Last Line: Just be eaten, portion of flesh and salt BABYSITTER First Line: The baby was about six months old Last Line: Upside-down, just under the ceiling of the world Subject(s): Adolescence; Babies BACCHANAL IN MEMORY First Line: In the morning, I can hardly remember it Last Line: Precursor of our earth BAROMETER First Line: Being a woman whose elder sister BATHING THE NEW BORN First Line: I love with an almost fearful love Last Line: Move his silky limbs at will in the water BATHROBE First Line: On his last birthday, my father's wife BEAST First Line: Without thinking, I drop my notebook BED First Line: My father's new wife was looking out a window Last Line: And woman as god had made them, almost %my parents, in love Subject(s): Beds; Fathers; Relationships BEYOND HARM Poem Text First Line: A week after my father died Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Death; Dead, The BEYOND HARM First Line: A week after my father died Last Line: I suddenly thought, with amazement, he will always %love me now, and I laughed - he was dead, dead! BIBLE STUDY: 71 B.C.E. Poem Text First Line: After marcus licinius crassus BIRTHDAY POEM FOR MY GRANDMOTHER LOTTIE BEDA MACLEAN First Line: I stood on the porch tonight - which way do we BODY REMEMBERS First Line: The day before high school graduation BONDING First Line: He comes home from the braces doctor Last Line: Open in pain and amazement BOULDER CREEK First Line: It was time to leave the cabin, the cellar Last Line: Dreamless. My mother was driving, she was a relative of god's BURNED DIARY First Line: She lay down, in her world, in its concentric Last Line: Had been the earth BY EARTH First Line: I will lie at the front of a church, in a box Last Line: Rosewood roof of my heaven, the balsam cot BY FIRE Poem Text First Line: When I pass an abandoned, half-wrecked building Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Death; Dead, The BY FIRE First Line: When I pass an abandoned half-wrecked building Last Line: To go out as a pugilist CAMBRIDGE ELEGY First Line: I hardly know how to speak to you now CAST First Line: When the doctor cut off our son's cast Last Line: At a wedding, when we see the two who have been joined CELIBACY AT TWENTY Poem Text First Line: After I broke up with someone Subject(s): Celibacy CELIBACY AT TWENTY First Line: After I broke up with someone Last Line: Entered the pit I did not want ever to come up out of it Subject(s): Celibacy CEREMONY OF BURIAL First Line: Looking south, at the base of the year Subject(s): Funerals; Burials CHAMBER THICKET Poem Text First Line: As we sat at the feet of the string quartet CHERRY First Line: I love the blackish scarlet, under Last Line: Like the arth,it did not love you it shone before your eyes CHRISTIAN CHILD First Line: The maroon velvet of the armrests was dense Last Line: Against, and then come to the hollow body, one %bite and it exploded CHRISTIAN CHILD First Line: I remember the dark maroon of the armrests CLASP First Line: She was four, he was one, it was raining, we had colds Last Line: Who loved her most, near the source of love %was this Subject(s): Love; Mothers And Daughters CO-ED FOUND First Line: Evenn if the newspaper is upside down Last Line: Mattapoisett, and the careful marking of the waste-field COMING HOME AFTER VACATION First Line: The car rolled into the drive at dusk and stopped COMING OF AGE, 1966 First Line: When I came to sex in full, not sex Last Line: March, my heart aching with righteousness CONNOISSEUSE OF SLUGS First Line: When I was a connoisseuse of slugs Last Line: Gleaming in the dark air, eager and so %trusting you could weep Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens And Gardening COOL BREEZE First Line: You talked to me a lot about your kid sister Last Line: Blood, brother - reebabecka's brother COULDN'T First Line: At length, there came the day my mother Last Line: And brought each other off, in the brilliant %waste of the power of creation Subject(s): Women CRAZY Poem Text First Line: I've said that he and I had been crazy Subject(s): Marriage; Divorce; Weddings; Husbands; Wives CULTURE AND RELIGION First Line: When the witch flew up to the left right left I Last Line: Bent and groaned, there was a strong wind, we were murderers DAY THEY TIED ME UP First Line: None of the pain was sharp. The sash Last Line: Discordant fuel - she wanted me to thrive, and decipher DEAD BODY ITSELF First Line: It killed me, after he died, the way we left him Last Line: Already lived on this earth before god %took that special clay and made his own set of people DEAR HEART Poem Text First Line: How did you know to turn me over Subject(s): Love - Erotic DEAR HEART First Line: How did you know to turn me over Last Line: To fire to ash, dust to bloom to dust Subject(s): Erotic Love DEATH OF MARILYN MONROE First Line: The ambulance men touched her cold Last Line: Woman %breathing Subject(s): Monroe, Marilyn (1926-1962); Popular Culture - United States DEFENSE First Line: When I walked into the seminar room Last Line: On end, in the saline DIAGNOSIS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: By the time I was six months old, she knew something Subject(s): Wit & Humor; Children; Childhood DIRTY MEMORIES First Line: The boy down the street dug a pit, in his yard Last Line: I'm saying I was glad DRAGONS First Line: Something moves on the grass, bent Last Line: Swimming like an inland sea DROWNING First Line: The mothers are siting in the kitchen, late EARLIEST MEMORY Poem Text First Line: Light - not bright, but deep. No beams Subject(s): Memory EARLIEST MEMORY First Line: Light, not bright, but deep. No beams Last Line: In light, striped, where I lay, whole, and watched EARLY IMAGES OF HEAVEN Poem Text First Line: It amazed me that the shapes of penises Subject(s): Love - Erotic EARLY IMAGES OF HEAVEN First Line: It amazed me that the shapes of penises Last Line: The father all around me Subject(s): Erotic Love ECSTASY Poem Text First Line: As we made love for the third day Subject(s): Love - Erotic ECSTASY First Line: As we made love for the third day Last Line: Place from which no one has ever come back Subject(s): Erotic Love ELDER SISTER First Line: When I look at my elder sister now Last Line: Bofy held in front of me Subject(s): Sisters ELECTRICITY SAVIOR First Line: He jumps up from supper, turns off the light Last Line: To his chest, like a lamp ELOPEMENT First Line: It was raining upwards, sideways, each Last Line: Kissed on our wedding day EMILY DICKINSON'S WRITING TABLE IN HER BEDROOM AT THE HOMESTEAD Poem Text First Line: The chair next to her writing table Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) EMILY DICKINSON'S WRITING TABLE IN HER BEDROOM AT THE HOMESTEAD First Line: The chair next to her writing table Last Line: Out of that house, it would have to come from me Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) EMPIRE STATE BUILDING AS THE MOON First Line: I walk the city, my eyes on her so she ENCHANTMENT First Line: When I say, to my mother, what was a good Last Line: Love, would she do me the honor of continued ensorcelling? ENCOUNTER First Line: I am combing my hair in front of the mirror EVEN NOW First Line: I don't know why I loved him so much Last Line: Calling, the cry of separated from one's kind EVERY TIME First Line: When I lie down to do a breast exam FACTORS First Line: Sometimes we seem almost to be working Last Line: Come, come, yes, my darling, my %sweetheart, come FALLS First Line: He reached out Last Line: Fished me back, and gave me to my mother to %strip and towel-dry, to burnish FEARED DROWNED First Line: Suddenly nobody knows where you are FERRYER First Line: Three years after my father's death FIFTY MOTHERS First Line: Then the crocus are out, I go out on the porch Last Line: As if they never met her, they do not %know whose girl they are FIRE ESCAPE First Line: It held with rusted struts to the rear Last Line: Horizontal, now - burned up, ash FIRE ESCAPE First Line: It stood a little away from the rear Last Line: Up, ash, I want to go back and sail %down the drain of rescue FIRST First Line: He stood in the sulphur baths, his calves Last Line: Into and under the start of the western sea FIRST BIRTH First Line: I had thought so little, really of her Last Line: I was nothing, no one, I was everything to her, I was hers FIRST BOYFRIEND First Line: We would park on any quiet street FIRST FORMAL First Line: She rises up above the strapless, her dewy Last Line: And gaze at the world and at us in dubious willingness FIRST HOUR Poem Text First Line: That hour, I was most myself. I had shrugged Last Line: And took me to my mother Subject(s): Mothers FIRST LOVE Poem Text First Line: It was sunday morning, I had the new york Subject(s): Love - Loss Of; Death; Dead, The FIRST NIGHT First Line: I lay asleep under you FIRST SEX Poem Text First Line: I knew little, and what I knew Subject(s): Love - Erotic FIRST SEX First Line: I knew little, and what I knew Last Line: Said and more, I rubbed it into my %hands like lotion, I signed on for the duration Subject(s): Erotic Love FIRST THANKSGIVING Poem Text First Line: When she comes back, from college, I will see Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Homecoming; Thanksgiving Day FIRST THANKSGIVING First Line: When she comes back, from college, I will see Last Line: The corrected curve of their departure FIRST WEEKS First Line: Those first weeks, I don't know if Last Line: I fell in love, I became human FISH OIL Poem Text First Line: One midnight, I got home from work Last Line: From the dream of judgment Subject(s): Cooking & Cooks; Smells FISH OIL First Line: One midnight, I got home from work Last Line: Wake to the pungent day, one could awake %from the dream of judgment FISH STORY First Line: The mother watched her daughter kneeling Subject(s): Daughters FISH STORY First Line: The mother watched her daughter kneeling Subject(s): Daughters FISHING OFF NOVA SCOTIA First Line: Visiting their father's childhood home FIVE-YEAR-OLD-BOY First Line: Gabriel at five is leaning on the world FOR AND AGAINST KNOWLEDGE First Line: If you don't have to ask it, fine FOR AND AGAINST KNOWLEDGE First Line: What happened to her? As long as it was she Last Line: Away, disperse, do not meet here FOR MY DAUGHTER First Line: That night will come. Somewhere someone will be FOR MY MOTHER Poem Text First Line: You were my first child, really. Subject(s): Mothers FOR MY MOTHER First Line: You were my first child, really. Last Line: Milk, it was seven years since then, I had forgotten nothing Subject(s): Mothers FORGIVENESS First Line: Maybe I should forgive myself Last Line: As if it were a sealed gate %down into the earth Subject(s): Mothers FORTY YEARS LATER First Line: When I suddenly sensed the rubber band which I had Subject(s): Parents; Parenthood FORTY YEARS LATER First Line: When I suddenly sensed the rubber band which I had Last Line: It could not be fit in them, they could not contain it Subject(s): Parents FORTY-ONE, ALONE, NO GERBIL Poem Text First Line: In the strange quiet, I realize Subject(s): Death - Animals; Solitude FORTY-ONE, ALONE, NO GERBIL First Line: In the strange quiet, I realize Last Line: Powerful call of a young animal FRONTIS NULLA FIDES First Line: Sometimes, now, I think of the back Last Line: He was a gentleman on whom I built %an absolute trust FROSTED ELFIN Poem Text First Line: When I was a child, I could look down Subject(s): Bodies FULL SUMMER First Line: I paused, and paused, over your body Last Line: I had thought I would have to die to each GEOGRAPHY First Line: I have come here to the end of the world GIFT First Line: If I could change one physical thing Last Line: Midwived me out, I came toward him in her ribbons, through her favors GIRL First Line: They chased her and her friend through the woods Last Line: And she does a cartwheel, the splits, she shakes the %shredded pom-poms in her fists GLASS First Line: I think of it with wonder now Last Line: On the table, these last mouthfuls Subject(s): Cancer (disease); Fathers; Glasses (tumblers); Love GOOD WILL First Line: Sorting clothes, if ind our son's old Last Line: Blue knee open, singing of the boy GREED AND AGGRESSION Poem Text First Line: Someone in quaker meeting talks about greed and agression Subject(s): Men GREED AND AGGRESSION First Line: Someone in quaker meeting talks about greed and agression Last Line: Faint, our mouths running, into sleep Subject(s): Men GREY GIRL First Line: We were walking down park, on the grates over Last Line: And flowers, I went back to the beginning GUILD First Line: Every night, as my grandfather sat Last Line: That young man my father Subject(s): Men HAIRS First Line: At 53, I start to save Last Line: Streaks of energy as I use up my life HAND First Line: After he falls, and his elbow is turned backwards Last Line: Expected to know it HE COMES FOR THE JEWISH FAMILY, 1942 Poem Text First Line: When the german came, they knew he would take them Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Terror; Shoah HEAVEN TO BE First Line: When I would picture my death, I would be lying on my back Last Line: As lovers do in a formal walk, %and take that step HER FIRST WEEK Poem Text First Line: She was so small I would scan the crib a half-second Subject(s): Babies; Infants HER FIRST WEEK First Line: She was so small I would scan the crib a half-second Last Line: Felt she was serious, I believed she was willing to stay Subject(s): Babies HER LAST AUGUST First Line: Underwater, I lay back Last Line: Can help me there. I pick up her book at occluded sunrise HER LIST First Line: At breakfast, my mother has a list of things Last Line: Womb swimming, free, through her body, %toward their place of mooring Subject(s): Mothers HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR Poem Text First Line: For seventeen years, her breath in the house Subject(s): High School Students; Mothers & Daughters HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR First Line: For seventeen years, her breath in the house Last Line: From hand to hand, to be weighed and then reweighed HIS COSTUME First Line: Somehow I never stopped to notice Last Line: Over into himself, and back, %over, and back HIS FATHER'S CADAVER First Line: The old man had always wanted Last Line: The mortal boy they had made HIS SMELL Poem Text First Line: In the last days of my father's life Subject(s): Death; Fathers; Smells; Dead, The; Odors; Aromas; Fragrances HIS SMELL First Line: In the last days of my father's life Last Line: Smelling him, breathing him in %as you would breathe the air deeply before going into exile Subject(s): Death; Fathers; Smells HIS STILLNESS Poem Text First Line: The doctor said to my father, you asked me Subject(s): Fathers; Incurable Diseases; Courage; Valor; Bravery HIS TERROR First Line: He loves the portable altar the minister Last Line: He has kept inside him all his life %and there are weeks left HISTORY OF MEDICINE First Line: Finally I fondly remember even benylin Last Line: Bottles behind her, she is struggling to be good, to be healed HOMAGE First Line: I know. You don't want to hear about it Last Line: And think about her for a moment, %think of nothing but her HOUR First Line: After we made love, a bird sang Last Line: Even, because love would have it so, precious HOUSEWIVES WATCHING MORNING TV First Line: Of course, your male fire-setter sets I AM THE SHRINK'S WIFE I AS YOU First Line: One minute, you're talking to him Last Line: Made of wind, water, starlight poured %mouth to mouth I CANNOT FORGET THE WOMAN IN THE MIRROR First Line: Backwards and upside down in the twilight, that Last Line: True life on this earth I COULD NOT TELL Poem Text First Line: I could not tell I had jumped off that bus, Subject(s): Mothers; Suicide; Buses I COULD NOT TELL I GO BACK TO MAY 1937 Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges Subject(s): Parents; Marriage; Failure; Parenthood; Weddings; Husbands; Wives I GO BACK TO MAY 1937 First Line: I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges Last Line: Do what you are going to do, and I will tell [you] about it I LOVE IT WHEN First Line: I love it when you roll over Last Line: Unfolded in silence I SEE MY GIRL First Line: When I see you off to camp, I see you I WANTED TO BE THERE WHEN MY FATHER DIED Last Line: Where the daughter of death was made, it was well to say %into other hands than ours %we commend thi IDEOGRAPHS Poem Text First Line: The small scaffolds, boards in the form of Subject(s): China; Photography & Photographers; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers IDEOGRAPHS First Line: The small scaffolds, boards in the form of Last Line: He looks at us in the silence. He says %save me, there is still time IMMERSION COIL First Line: Its curled forelock goes into the water Last Line: Until he dies, rolling his eden-ploughed- %under eyes IMMIGRANTS First Line: Sometimes I don't want to think about the human, the IN THE CELL Poem Text First Line: Sitting in the car at the end of summer, my Subject(s): Body, Human; Men IN THE HOSPITAL, NEAR THE END Poem Text First Line: Suddenly my father lifted up his nightie, I Variant Title(s): The Lifting Subject(s): Death; Fathers & Daughters; Dead, The IN THE HOSPITAL, NEAR THE END First Line: Suddenly my father lifted up his nightie, I Last Line: The veils would fall from our eyes, we would know everything Variant Title(s): The Liftin Subject(s): Death; Fathers And Daughters IN WHAT DIRECTION OR WHEN Poem Text First Line: By the time I find he was gone, it is Subject(s): Fathers IN WHAT DIRECTION OR WHEN First Line: By the time I find he has gone, it is Last Line: Chemical honor back down into the water table INDICTMENT OF SENIOR OFFICERS First Line: In the hallway above the pit of the stairwell Last Line: Someone sent to the front lines %without training %or a weapon INDISPENSIBILITY OF THE EYES First Line: Holding hands with the blind girls INFINITE BLISS Poem Text First Line: When I first saw snow cover the air Last Line: Reflected snow, where we lay Subject(s): Snow; Love - Erotic INFINITE BLISS First Line: When I first saw snow cover the air ISSUES First Line: Just don't tell me about the issues Last Line: Don't speak to me about %politics. I've got eyes, man Subject(s): Politics JAPANESE-AMERICAN FARMHOUSE, CALIFORNIA, 1942 First Line: Everything has been taken that anyone Last Line: In wartime, of ignorant people JUNIOR LIFESAVING First Line: He was a high school math teacher, during the winter Last Line: Geometry and algebra, 4th period, he was mr. Bliss Subject(s): Adolescence; Lifeguards KILLERS First Line: I understand them, you see. I took the KILLING MY SISTER'S FISH First Line: I picked up the bottle with its gladiator shoulders Last Line: Had been accomplished KNOW-NOTHING Poem Text First Line: Sometimes I think I know nothing about sex Subject(s): Knowledge; Sex KNOW-NOTHING First Line: Sometimes I think I know nothing about sex Last Line: In the balance with birth, and ignorance with love Subject(s): Knowledge; Sex KNOWING First Line: Afterwards, when we have slept, paradise Last Line: Beyond the body itself, we are making love Subject(s): Love - Marital KNOWN TO BE LEFT First Line: If I pass a mirror, I turn away Last Line: Old heart. What is living, anyway, %but dying LADY BUG First Line: The day our daughter gets into college Last Line: I swore to her I'd raise her until in her strength she could leave me LAMENT First Line: Finally someone knocks it over and breaks it Last Line: Cool, till night in the cavern of her body %fresh, and pliant LANGUAGE OF THE BRAG First Line: I have wanted excellence in the knife-throw Last Line: And I am putting my proud american boast %right here with the others Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Poetry And Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891); Women; Women's Rights LAST BIRTHDAY AT HOME First Line: The last night before you were born, you were Last Line: Walked across them and stood at the moment of your appearing Variant Title(s): January, Daughte Subject(s): Birth; Daughters LAST DAY First Line: The last day of my father's life Last Line: It moved so easily, and his ear, %gently crushed in the lasthour, %unfolded in the air LAST HOUR First Line: In the middle of the night, I made myself a bed Last Line: Muffled, the marguerite, the mother of %pearl moon LAST NIGHT Poem Text First Line: The next day, I am almost afraid. Subject(s): Love - Erotic LAST NIGHT First Line: The next day, I am almost afraid. Last Line: The mornng after love Subject(s): Erotic Love LAST WORDS First Line: Three days ago, my suitcases Last Line: Leave till he had done so, I will not let thee go except thou %beg for it LATE First Line: The mist is blowing across the yard LATE POEM TO MY FATHER Poem Text First Line: Suddenly I thought of you Subject(s): Fathers; Grandparents; Love; Alcoholics & Alcoholism; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers LEARNER First Line: When my mother tells me she has found her late husband's Last Line: I have come near a clearing, where a spirit of mourning %is bathing herself, and signing Subject(s): Mothers LEAVING THE ISLAND First Line: On the ferry, on the last morning of summer Last Line: Tightly around father and son, shielding them LENINGRAD CEMETERY, WINTER OF 1941 Poem Text First Line: That winter, the dead could not be buried Subject(s): Corpses; Leningrad, Siege Of (1941); Cadavers LENINGRAD CEMETERY, WINTER OF 1941 First Line: That winter, the dead could not be buried Last Line: Even to the icy winter, and the siege Subject(s): Corpses; Leningrad, Siege Of (1941) LIFE WITH SICK KIDS Poem Text First Line: One child coughs once Subject(s): Children; Sickness; Childhood; Illness LIFE WITH SICK KIDS First Line: One child coughs once Last Line: Thinking I hear the unconceived one %cough a little introductory cough Subject(s): Children; Sickness LIFELONG First Line: When I think of your tail-bone, the tart sweetness Last Line: Door that opens in that floor, and stands open, and we dive LISP First Line: Sometimes they liked me. When I was a kid Last Line: Get me to say it again, they would ask me to speak LOOK First Line: When my father started choking again Last Line: Without reluctance and looked at me %directley, for just a moment, with a dark %face and dark shinin LOVE BETWEEN US First Line: That love between us I called a stillborn LOVE FOSSIL First Line: My da on his elegant vegetarian ankles LOVE IN BLOODLINE Poem Text First Line: When I saw my blood on your leg, the drop so Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Blood LOVE OBJECT First Line: Love invents the body that is not an object LOVE'S EYESIGHT First Line: When we drive away after visitor's day Last Line: I felt I knew him, I could not have described him and I loved him MAIDEN NAME First Line: It's akin to icelandic kobbi, seal Last Line: Or mend, coarsely, as I patch or botch %these cobbl'd rhymes MAKARIS First Line: Sometimes it seems as if they are trying to get Last Line: To each other, it is the one they murder MAKING LOVE Poem Text First Line: You wake up, and you do not know Subject(s): Love - Erotic MAKING LOVE First Line: You wake up, and you do not know Last Line: You will not remember, you will never know Subject(s): Erotic Love MATTHEWS AH UM First Line: Dear bill, on the pavement to your service, in the ginkgo Last Line: Rich with song, gleaming with new love's knowing MAY-68 First Line: When the dean said we could not cross campus Last Line: They slept in a circle around my body and my daughter MAY-68 First Line: The dean of the university said Last Line: Dark circle around my body and my daughter MILK-BUBBLE RUINS First Line: In the long, indolent mornings of fifth-grade Last Line: Conjures and breaks each small room of milk MOLE First Line: My girl found it on the way to the garden Last Line: That I know she will die, my dark sleek %secretive daughter MOM AS COMET Poem Text First Line: How do they know that it won't decide Last Line: Reckless energy, to astound and delight me Subject(s): Mothers MOM AS COMET First Line: How do they know that it won't decide Last Line: Reckless energy, to astound and delight me MOMENT OF MY FATHER'S DEATH First Line: When he had breathed his last breath it was he Last Line: Waves of it, the unliving glistening %matter of this world MONARCHS Poem Text First Line: All morning, as I sit thinking of you Last Line: The beauty and silence of the great migrations Subject(s): Longing; Love - Erotic; Butterflies; Migration MONARCHS First Line: All morning, as I sit thinking of you Last Line: The beauty and silence of the great migrations Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Exiles; Longing MONEY First Line: Filthy lucre, dough, lettuce Last Line: Green cry, it was a ticket to ride MONTH OF JUNE: 13 1/2 First Line: As my daughter approaches graduation and Subject(s): Daughters MORNING AFTER KRISTALLNACHT First Line: The germans gather in front of the store, they MORTAL ETERNAL First Line: Starfish rubble and sand on the floor Last Line: Till death do us part MORTAL ONE First Line: All my life I had seen that long Last Line: The tiny naked dead one in the corner, %the mortal one MOTHER First Line: Whatever she was to me, she was Last Line: Pour forth a newborn's caroling MOTHER First Line: In the dreamy silence after bath Last Line: Ead, necessity after all being %the mother of invention MOTHER AT THE END OF JUNE First Line: After they go away to summer camp Last Line: I thought I could slake, but I could only slake and feed MOUNT MORIAH, 4000 B.C.E. First Line: When they got here, the son was carrying the wood Last Line: Seek what I have lost, I will kneel and worship it MRS. KRIKORIAN Poem Text First Line: She saved me. When I arrived in sixth grade Subject(s): Education; Schools; Students MRS. KRIKORIAN First Line: She saved me. When I arrived in sixth grade Last Line: With the eerie comfort of what is neither good nor evil Subject(s): Education; Schools MY FATHER SPEAKS TO ME FROM THE DEAD First Line: I seem to have woken up in a pot-shed Last Line: I mean look down at your hand, move it, %that motion is matter's love, for human %love go elswhere MY FATHER'S DIARY (1) Poem Text First Line: I get into bed with it, and spring Subject(s): Diaries; Fathers & Daughters MY FATHER'S DIARY (2) Poem Text First Line: When I sit on the bed, and spring the brass Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Diaries MY FATHER'S DIARY (2) First Line: When I sit on the bed, and spring the brass Last Line: Someone to know him MY FIRST HOUR First Line: That hour, I was most myself. I had shrugged Last Line: And took me to my mother MY FIRST WEEKS First Line: Sometimes, when I wonder what I'm like, underneath Last Line: And flame, I have known heaven MY MOTHER'S COLLEGE First Line: I am going to be there where her body was when it was MY MOTHER'S PANSIES Poem Text First Line: And all that time, in back of the house, Subject(s): Pansies; Mothers MY MOTHER'S PANSIES First Line: And all that time, in back of the house Last Line: Each sex like a spirit - shy, flushed, praying MY SON THE MAN Poem Text First Line: Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider Subject(s): Sons MY SON THE MAN First Line: Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider Last Line: To learn the way out, then smiled and let himself be manacled NATIVE First Line: This touching of him, on the borders of sleep Last Line: Wander on him, hold to him and move %on and hold to him, I feel I am home again NATURAL HISTORY First Line: When I think about eels, I think about seattle NECKING First Line: I remember the arabic numerals [or, greenish lights] on the dashboards Last Line: Endless then, the apprenticeship to the mortal NECKLACE First Line: At the worst of the depression, one moment in the office Last Line: Wobble along me, earth on her axis, %chariot-wheel of the morning NEW MOTHER First Line: A week after our child was born Last Line: Until it is whole, until it can run again NEW STRANGER First Line: They would peer in the carriage and ask was your father Last Line: Your mother smile NIGHT POEM TO MY MOTHER First Line: When I was eight, nine, ten, I NIGHT TERRORS First Line: She has so strongly this sense of someone coming after her NURSE WHITMAN Poem Text First Line: You move between the soldiers' cots Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) NURSE WHITMAN First Line: You move between the soldiers' cots Last Line: We conceive, walt, with the men we love, thus, now, %we bring to fruit Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) ON THE SUBWAY Poem Text First Line: The boy and I faced each other Subject(s): Subways; Race Awareness ONCE First Line: I saw my father naked, once, I Last Line: Bulge of the hip-joint, border of the pelvic cradle ONE GIRL AT THE BOYS PARTY First Line: When I take my girl to the swimming party Last Line: Sparkle and fall to the power of a thousand from her body Subject(s): Adolescence OPENING First Line: Finally one night there was a high wind ORDEAL First Line: When our son gets braces, the next day Last Line: Curves out into the air OTHER LIFE First Line: I walk around turning off lights OUTDOOR SHOWER First Line: Crusted with dried brack, dusted with Last Line: The world as heaven, you body at the edge of it OUTSIDE THE OPERATING ROOM OF THE SEX-CHANGE DOCTOR Poem Text First Line: Outside the operating room of the sex-change doctor, a tray / of penises Subject(s): Sex; Surgery PAJAMAS First Line: My daughter's pajamas lie on the floor Last Line: Sharp fragrance like peach brandy-- %the birth-room pungence of her released life PARENT VISITING DAY First Line: In the science room, the model person Last Line: If there had been a task to perform I would have performed it. %but you could not be helped. That wa PARENTS' DAY Poem Text First Line: I breathed shallow as I looked for her Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters PARENTS' DAY First Line: I breathed shallow as I looked for her Last Line: And to know she was mine PARTS OF THE BODY First Line: Seeing the wind at the airport blowing on his hair Last Line: Which will mean all children, then, %all those living PEDIATRICIAN RETIRES First Line: This is the archway where I stood, next to the Last Line: But I think that until the end of our life we are here PEELED GRAPES First Line: When I call my mother on mothers day Last Line: But she said it: be yourself PHOTOGRAPH OF THE GIRL First Line: The girl sits on the hard ground Last Line: Golden as drops of grain PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE FALL RIVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY First Line: The lady in ruched sateen is lying PHYSICS First Line: Her first puzzle had three pieces Last Line: Inside her life. I have not been born yet PILGRIMAGE First Line: I watch you standing far down on the rocks PLANNED CHILD First Line: A hated the fact that they had planned me, she had taken Last Line: Was enough, for her, without me POEM TO OUR SON AFTER A HIGH FEVER First Line: When what you hear speeds up, again, Last Line: Fear, as if you are prepared to bear %anything POEM TO THE READER First Line: Since I was thirteen, I have wondered what I am Last Line: For this brief kiss POEMS FOR THE BREASTS Poem Text First Line: Like other identical twins, they can be Subject(s): Breasts; Divorce PORTRAIT OF A DAUGHTER First Line: You get so soft when you get sick POSSESSIVE First Line: My daughter - as if I Last Line: The watch fires of an enemy, a while before %the war starts Subject(s): Daughters PRAYER First Line: Let me be faithful to the central meanings PRAYER DURING A TIME MY SON IS HAVING SEIZURES Poem Text First Line: Finally I just lean on the door-frame, a Subject(s): Sons; Sickness; Prayer; Illness PRAYER DURING THAT TIME First Line: I would sometimes find myself leaning on a doorframe Last Line: He might be in hell. But alive! But alive in hell PREPOSITIONS First Line: When I started junior high, I thought Last Line: Fourteen, the breaking of childhood, beginning of memory PRIMITIVE First Line: I have heard about the civilized PROMISE First Line: With the second drink, at the restaurant Last Line: Binding your soul are your own wrists, I will cut them Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism; Death PROTESTOR First Line: We were driving north, through the snow, you said Last Line: Swallowed and carried in the ark of the body itself Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970 PULL First Line: As the flu goes on, I get thinner and thinner Last Line: Felt the suction of his tongue, his palate, his %head, his body, his death pulling at my hand QUAKE THEORY Poem Text First Line: When two planes of earth scrape along each other Subject(s): Disasters; Earthquakes QUAKE THEORY First Line: When two planes of earth scrape along each other Last Line: The earth cracks %and innocent people slip gently in like swimmers Subject(s): Disasters; Earthquakes QUEST First Line: The day my girl is lost for an hour Last Line: Pressed to my breast, I cannot get it to her fast enough RACE First Line: When I got to the airport I rushed up to the desk Last Line: All night %I watched him breathe Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters; Men RACE RIOT, TULSA, 1921 First Line: The blazing white shirts of the white men READING YOU First Line: It is as if REMEDY First Line: He did not have a fever, but he looked Last Line: Then both our souls forward with birth-room crying REPUBLICAN LIVING ROOMS First Line: I have known the republican living rooms REQUEST First Line: He lay like someone fallen from a high Last Line: Eyes and he passed out and never %came up again, now he could move %steadily down RISING DAUGHTER First Line: As I sucked life from my mother's body RITE OF PASSAGE First Line: As the guests arrive at my son's party RITES OF PASSAGE Poem Text First Line: As the guests arrive at my son's party Subject(s): Boys; Birthdays SATAN SAYS First Line: I am locked in a little cedar box Last Line: Hands at the dancer's %rudy eye-- %the fire, the suddenly discovered knowledge of love SATURN Poem Text First Line: He lay on the couch night after night Subject(s): Men SATURN First Line: He lay on the couch night after night Last Line: What a man's life was Subject(s): Men SCHOOLHOUSE BELL First Line: She stood on the cropped hill, wind %flattening skirt against pelvis, tassels Last Line: Up her ass, our sister rings %the twentieth century %in SEEKER First Line: Suddenly, at night, in a strange town Last Line: And he would not take it. But he might. But he would not SEVENTH BIRTHDAY OF THE FIRST CHILD Poem Text First Line: The children were around my feet like dogs Subject(s): Children; Childhood SEVENTH BIRTHDAY OF THE FIRST CHILD First Line: The children were around my feet like dogs Last Line: Newborn eyes. You sit in the boughs, %blossoms breaking like porcelain cups around you Subject(s): Children SEX AT COLLEGE (CELIBACY) First Line: I've forgotten, really, what it was like, being SEX WITHOUT LOVE Poem Text Recitation First Line: How do they do it, the ones who make love Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Lust; Sex; Sports SEX WITHOUT LOVE First Line: How do they do it, the ones who make love Last Line: Single body alone in the universe %against it own best time Subject(s): Erotic Love; Lust; Sex; Sports SHORE First Line: The water was clear, grey-green, when I dove Last Line: Or speaking, and then eased out, into its sleep SIBLINGS First Line: When our daughter's cough brings on choking attacks Last Line: Presses down, he will accompany her down into life SIGN OF SATURN First Line: Sometimes my daughter looks at me with an SILENCE, WITH TWO TEXTS First Line: When we lived together, the silence in the home Last Line: And by night silence lay down with blindness, %and sang, and saw SISTERS OF SEXUAL TREASURE First Line: As soon as my sister and I got out of our Last Line: Proved our theory of the lost culture: %that if mother said it wasn't there, %it was there SLEEP SUITE First Line: To end up in a little hotel suite Last Line: In the room with our son and daughter SLOWLY HE STARTS Poem Text First Line: And slowly he starts to seem more far / away, he seems to waft, drift Subject(s): Loss SOCKS First Line: I'll play ninja death with you Last Line: Soul to clothe it, the mother given to the child SOLITARY First Line: I keep thinking of you standing in korea, in the courtyard Last Line: Pass it on: a poet, a woman, %a witness, standing %alone %ina prison %courtyard %in korea SOLO First Line: Our son shrugs into his macho jacket Last Line: His throat opens, and he breathes a low o SOMETIMES First Line: And then, sometimes, you have come many times Last Line: Behind the pine boughs - keep you from despair SOUND First Line: The morning our daughter has come home, I hear Last Line: Audible, as if matter itself were merciful SOURCE First Line: It became the deep spring of my life Last Line: Pure calm, as if each one of us is whole SPACE HEATER First Line: On the ten-below-zero day, it was on Last Line: The heat of vision, the power of the heat, %the pleasure of the power SPONGE First Line: Each spring, in the crucifixion movie, it was Last Line: Prepare its scroll and indict it with what felt to me like %stern improvisation SPOUSES WAKING UP IN THE HOTEL MIRROR First Line: The man looked like himself, only more so Last Line: Or semen, the first skein from a boy's heart Variant Title(s): The Couple Waking Up In The Hotel Mirro SSSHH Poem Text First Line: There was someone asleep in the next room Subject(s): Sleep SSSHH First Line: There was someone asleep in the next room Last Line: The lovers, and now the paper whisper, %ssshh, ssshh Subject(s): Sleep STAG'S LEAP Poem Text First Line: Then the drawing on the label of our favorite red wine Subject(s): Marriage; Absence; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Separation; Isolation STAG'S LEAP First Line: Then the creature on the label of our favorite red Last Line: Blowpipes as dark, green, wavering groans STATION First Line: Coming in off the dock after writing Last Line: In the truth of our situation, the poems %heavy as poached game hanging from my hands STILL LIFE Poem Text First Line: At moments almost thinking of her, I was Subject(s): Mothers; Sickness; Illness STILL LIFE IN LANDSCAPE Poem Text First Line: It was night, it had rained, there were pieces of cars Subject(s): Death; Dead, The STILL LIFE IN LANDSCAPE First Line: It was night, it had rained, there were pieces of cars Last Line: Glass, bone, metal, flesh, and the family Subject(s): Death STRUGGLE First Line: When the minister would come into the hospital room Last Line: Awake, the raw boy of his heart stood %up each time a grown man %entered his death-room SUMMER SOLSTICE, NEW YORK CITY Poem Text First Line: By the end of the longest day of the year he could not stand it Subject(s): Summer Solstice; Crime & Criminals SUMMER SOLSTICE, NEW YORK CITY First Line: By the end of the longest day of the year he could not stand it Last Line: Back at the beginning of the world SUMMER-CAMP BUS PULLS AWAY FROM THE CURB First Line: Whatever he needs, he has or doesn't Last Line: Unpacked and lined up on a bunk in the underpine light SUNDAY NIGHT Poem Text First Line: When the family would go to a restaurant, Subject(s): Waiters & Waitresses; Fathers; Bad Behavior; Shame; Sex SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE CITY First Line: Hand in hand, we lie on the bed SWIMMER First Line: The way the seed that made me raced SWIMMING RACE First Line: Noon, orinda park pool, three girls Last Line: Face flushed with pleasure and the shade of the yardarm TAKE THE I OUT Poem Text First Line: But I love the I, steel I-beam Subject(s): Poetry & Poets TAKE THE I OUT First Line: But I love the I, steel I-beam Last Line: Which throws its cones as far as it can in a fire TALK First Line: In the dark square wooden room at noon Last Line: A deep pond - and she cannot swim, %the child cannot swim Subject(s): Mothers And Daughters; Swimming TALKERS First Line: All week, we talked. We talked Last Line: They are not going to touch each other THAT MOMENT First Line: It is almost too long ago to remember Last Line: And then like a god I turned and brought them in THAT YEAR First Line: The year of the mask of blood, my father Last Line: For the six million, but was a word for me %and for many others. I was: %a survivor THE ABANDONED NEWBORN Poem Text First Line: When they found you, you were not breathing Subject(s): Babies; Abandonment; Infants; Desertion THE BABYSITTER Poem Text First Line: The baby was about six months old Subject(s): Adolescence; Babies; Teen Agers; Infants THE CAST Poem Text First Line: When the doctor cut off my son's cast the Subject(s): Sons; Plaster Casts THE CLASP Poem Text First Line: She was four, he was one, it was raining, we had colds Subject(s): Love; Mothers & Daughters THE CONNOISSEUSE OF SLUGS Poem Text First Line: When I was a connoisseuse of slugs Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens & Gardening THE COULDN'T Poem Text First Line: And then, one day, though my mother had sent me Subject(s): Women THE DAY THEY TIED ME UP Poem Text First Line: None of the pain was sharp. The sash was THE DEATH OF MARILYN MONROE Poem Text First Line: The ambulance men touched her cold Subject(s): Monroe, Marilyn (1926-1962); Popular Culture - United States THE ELDER SISTER Poem Text First Line: When I look at my elder sister now Subject(s): Sisters THE ENCHANTMENT Poem Text First Line: When I say, to my mother, what was a good Subject(s): Mothers THE FEAR OF ONE'S SELF Poem Text First Line: As we get near the house. Taking off our gloves Subject(s): Self THE FERRYER Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Three years after my father's death Subject(s): Fathers THE FLURRY Poem Text First Line: When we talk about when to tell the kids Subject(s): Divorce THE FOOD-THIEF Poem Text First Line: They drive him along the road in the steady THE GLASS Poem Text First Line: I think of it with wonder now Subject(s): Cancer (disease); Fathers; Glasses (tumblers); Love THE GUILD Poem Text First Line: Every night, as my grandfather sat Subject(s): Men THE ISSUES Poem Text First Line: Just don't tell me about the issues Subject(s): Politics & Government THE KNOWING Poem Text Recitation First Line: Afterwards, when we have slept, paradise Subject(s): Love - Marital; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love THE LANGUAGE OF THE BRAG Poem Text First Line: I have wanted excellence in the knife-throw Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Poetry & Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891); Women; Women's Rights; Male-female Relations; Feminism THE LAST BIRTHDAY AT HOME Poem Text First Line: The last night before you were born, you were Variant Title(s): January, Daughter Subject(s): Birth; Daughters; Child Birth; Midwifery THE LATEST INJURY Poem Text First Line: When my son comes home from the weekend trip where he Subject(s): Accidents; Injuries; Sons THE LEARNER Poem Text First Line: When my mother tells me she has found her late husband's Last Line: Bathing itself, and singing Subject(s): Mothers THE LEGLESS FIGHTER PILOT Poem Text First Line: He takes his calf in his hand, lifts the Subject(s): Air Warfare; Aviation & Aviators; Amputees; World War Ii; Airplanes; Air Pilots; Second World War THE MEAL Poem Text First Line: Mama, I never stop seeing you there Subject(s): Food & Eating; Mothers; Family Life; Relatives THE MONTH OF JUNE: 13 1/2 Poem Text First Line: As my daughter approaches graduation and Subject(s): Daughters THE MORTAL ONE Poem Text First Line: Three months after he lies dead, that Subject(s): Fathers; Death; Dead, The THE ONE GIRL AT THE BOYS PARTY Poem Text First Line: When I take my girl to the swimming party Subject(s): Adolescence; Teen Agers THE PLANNED CHILD Poem Text First Line: I always hated the way they planned me, she Subject(s): Birth Control; Disappointment; Contraception THE POPE'S PENIS Poem Text First Line: It hangs deep in his robes, a delicate Subject(s): Popes; Papacy THE POSSESSIVE Poem Text First Line: My daughter - as if I Subject(s): Daughters THE PROMISE Poem Text First Line: With the second drink, at the restaurant Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Death; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse; Dead, The THE PROTESTOR Poem Text First Line: We were driving north, through the snow, you said Last Line: Swallowed and carried in the ark of the body itself Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970 THE PULL Poem Text First Line: As the flu goes on, I get thinner and thinner Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Absence; Separation; Isolation THE RACE Poem Text First Line: When I got to the airport I rushed up to the desk Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Men THE SHYNESS Poem Text First Line: Then, when we were joined, I became Subject(s): Shyness; Love - Erotic; Solitude THE SUMMER-CANP BUS PULLS AWAY FROM THE CURB Poem Text First Line: Whatever he needs, he has or doesn't Subject(s): Camping; Summer; Farewell; Camps; Summer Camps; Parting THE TALK Poem Text First Line: In the dark square wooden room at noon Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Swimming & Swimmers THE UNJUSTLY PUNISHED CHILD Poem Text First Line: The child screams in his room. Rage Subject(s): Punishment THE VICTIMS Poem Text First Line: When mother divorced you, we were glad. She took it and Subject(s): Divorce THE WEDDING VOW Poem Text First Line: I did not stand at the altar, I stood Subject(s): Love - Marital; Marriage; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Weddings; Husbands; Wives THE WINDOW Poem Text First Line: Our daughter calls me, in tears - like water Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish - Aftermath THEN First Line: And then, I opened my eyes, and saw you Last Line: For a moment, stop stalking THESE DAYS First Line: Whenever I see large breasts Last Line: Of the spheres. And I don't %want it to be %my mother. I want to start over THINGS OF THIS WORLD First Line: Sometimes I think I made it up THINGS THAT ARE WORSE THAN DEATH First Line: You are speaking of chile Last Line: Gracious and eternal death %who permits departure THIS HOUR First Line: We could never really say what it is like Last Line: It is the summer night, we are in it TIME-TRAVEL First Line: I have learned to go back and walk around Last Line: She does not know she is the one %survivor TO A POET First Line: Out here, at the end of the world TO MY FATHER First Line: When I stood hip-deep in the pond, on a day Last Line: Writ on water in waste, and pulled to the %dam and dashed down over it TO MY HUSBAND First Line: At their wedding service, outdoors, the young bridesmaids' Last Line: Mother sitting in the precinct, holding %my cocked pinky TO OUR MISCARRIED ONE, AGE THIRTY NOW First Line: Though I never saw you, only your clouds Last Line: To see you again, I never thought to seek you TOPOGRAPHY Poem Text First Line: After we flew across the country we Subject(s): United States; Togetherness; America TOPOGRAPHY First Line: After we flew across the country we Last Line: Nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all TOTH FARRY Poem Text First Line: In the back of the charm-box, in a sack, the baby Subject(s): Babies; Teeth; Infants; Toothaches TOUSLED DARLING First Line: If, when you first arrived, I looked Last Line: Just above the earth, its heaven TRANSFORMED BOY First Line: At twelve, he stops wearing polo shirts Last Line: And then, if you're lucky, you ask her TRICKS First Line: My mother %the magician %can make eggs TRUE BLUE First Line: Sometimes my father let us vote Last Line: For the prevention of sin, the resurrection of the body TRUE LOVE Poem Text First Line: In the middle of the night, when we get up Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Love TRUE LOVE First Line: In the middle of the night, when we get up Last Line: I cannot see beyond it. I cannot see beyond it Subject(s): Erotic Love; Love TRY-OUTS First Line: Rat! Torturing my brain!' is the aria Last Line: Off-key cries of my kind TRYING TO BELIEVE IN MY FATHER'S DEATH First Line: Last night I remembered his dead body TWELVE YEARS OLD First Line: When our daughter and her friend walk away Last Line: Knife into the chicken in a dream when she is really hungry ULTRASOUND First Line: It looked, inside my womb, on the screen Last Line: Worrying about, you'll live forever, %and then I fell to earth UNBORN First Line: Sometimes I can almost see, around our heads UNDERLIFE First Line: Waiting for the subway, bad station, no one near me, the UNJUSTLY PUNISHED CHILD First Line: The child screams in his room. Rage Last Line: He is stronger. The long impurification %has begun this morning Subject(s): Punishment URN First Line: I had thought it would be tapered, with a small Last Line: Turned away from us, or could not %look at us, just the pressure of their weight is a blessing VICTIMS First Line: When mother divorced you, we were glad. She took it and Last Line: Given it all away and had nothing %left but this Subject(s): Divorce VIRGINAL ORGY Poem Text First Line: In our sophomore year, solomon wheat Subject(s): High School Students VISION First Line: Suddenly, staring at a motel wall Last Line: I saw it was the soul Variant Title(s): In His Hand VISION First Line: We were lying on the bed - and what if we Last Line: Anyone who goes near that porch VISITING MY MOTHER'S COLLEGE First Line: This is where her body was Last Line: Tiny room was flecked with sour bright citrus VOGUE SHOOT Poem Text Subject(s): Photography & Photographers; Models; Cosmetics VOICES Poem Text First Line: Our voices race to the towers, and up beyond Subject(s): Voices WAITING First Line: No matter how early I would get up Last Line: Waiting for his daughter WAITING ROOM First Line: I would love to see him walk in this moment WARRIOR: 5TH GRADE First Line: I don't remember who had set it up Last Line: Fucked blind, pummelled half dead with it WATCHERS: FILM First Line: The car moved slowly, into the frame Last Line: And grew bigger and bigger, until the screen was dark WATCHERS: STILL First Line: It is almost a relief to see him again Last Line: We stood behind the camera in perfect safety, like demons WEDDING VOW First Line: I did not stand at the altar, I stood Last Line: I do. I take as he takes - we have been %practicing this. Do you bear this pleasure? I do Subject(s): Love - Marital; Marriage WELLSPRING First Line: It is the deep spring of my life, this love for men WEST First Line: The hair I pull, out of my comb Last Line: Someone, somewhere, were saying, to me, we are one now WESTERN WIND First Line: Pacific-huge piece of the pattern Last Line: On their way to the ice fields WHAT I LIKED ABOUT IT First Line: I liked the round, hooked rug Last Line: There was nothing I liked, I had been pushed from earth %theway she had once pressed me out of heave WHAT IF GOD Poem Text First Line: And what if god had been watching when my mother Subject(s): God; Mothers WHAT IF GOD First Line: And what if god had been watching, when my mother Last Line: Take that woman by the nape of the neck like a young cat %and lift her up, and deliver her over to m WHAT IS THE EARTH? First Line: The earth is a homeless person. Or Last Line: Were a god, who could eat the earth, a god %of homelessness WHAT IT MEANT First Line: I didn't know what it meant that he was born Last Line: In the beauty of her lily WHEN Poem Text First Line: I wonder now only when it will happen Last Line: It will look so beautiful. Subject(s): Amputees; Antinuclear Movement; Nuclear War; Nuclear Freeze; Atomic Bomb; Hydrogen Bomb WHEN IT COMES First Line: Even when you're not afraid you might be pregnant Last Line: As if life moaned a little, in wonder, and we were it WHEN THE DEAD ASK MY FATHER ABOUT ME First Line: No, I could not speak about her Last Line: To labor it out, lever it into her %mouth I am audible, listen! This is my song WHERE WILL LOVE GO? First Line: Where will love go? When my father Last Line: Is powerless, and means nothing WHILE HE TOLD ME First Line: While he told me, I looked from small thing Last Line: Living, my imagined shepherd in impermanent paradise WINDOW First Line: Our daughter calls me, in tears - like water Last Line: The breathing of her own body as she sees Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish - Aftermath YOU KINDLY First Line: Because I felt too weak to move Last Line: Did not love me, how he trained me not to be loved YOUNG MOTHERS (1) First Line: That look of attention YOUNG MOTHERS (2) First Line: She is all eyes and ears for damage YOUNG MOTHERS (4) First Line: The look on the face if the young mother YOUNG MOTHERS (5) First Line: In the room with the baby, the young mother ZNAMENSKAYA SQUARE, LENINGRAD, 1941 Poem Text First Line: The older girl pulls the child's Subject(s): Saint Oetersburg, Russia; World War Ii; Children - Death; Second World War ZNAMENSKAYA SQUARE, LENINGRAD, 1941 First Line: The older girl pulls the child's |
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