Arabesques
Todd Swift reading Arabesques 1479.8 KB
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Of time, the whole shivering mess
Of inhalation, of Paris,
Of what lamplight may express
Best when extinguished, how
A distinguished man will dress
Only to undress a woman under
The eye of the moon, the eyes
Of mirrors, in the hall, the spare
Room and turned to walls, to see
The damp arabesques that Poe once
Urged on decorators everywhere,
In his Philosophy of Furniture,
When he could not yet envisage
The opaque effects of the future.
That smell of books as good as honey
Or milk in tea, promising
A day swept clear of storms, though
Across the bay, a headland of cloud
Desires to break upon the sky
Like glass wants to step out
Of its mirror, to surprise and redraw
The angles of the day, the word’s repose;
As if she was a sitter for a poet
Whose every metaphor was to curve
Her black fringe above the eyes
Away to reveal the small scars
On a scalp that was drawn away
From the womb with strong callipers.
Still beautiful, her head, despite
How it first came into the world,
Came into seeing, and being seen.
This doubling, as composed,
Rebreaks rain upon the windows
Where the house turns out over the cove,
And the night begins its trains
Across the countryside, upsetting the owls
Resuscitating the Forties with cries:
Children have cowls and altars are wise.
Page(s) 347-348
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