Anthony James
Karen
Karen, actress who wouldn’t play her part,
Have courage in this impressive Spring
When snow collides with daffodils.
Your arteries are paper thin now, sister,
And yet thirty years ago, a malignant family
Measured your little cell as a secular, neurotic nun,
Their victim, sick one, scapegoat, staying at home
So they could feed off you like ivy off an oak.
Karen, sister, you resisted it then, refused the part written for you,
Listened to the rhythm, the underground river of your life,
You turned down sickness, decided to change a world instead.
Did we exchange embarrassed, self-conscious smiles in 1974?
(So long ago ... perhaps it was 1917 or 1789!)
And since then, have any two souls or livers absorbed so much wine?
Your arteries are thin as paper, your head feels like a fragile shell,
Feeling always responsible and afraid of failing. This is Spring...
The underground river of your life, the rhythm
Knows where it is taking you.
When one day the final haemorrhage explodes in your brain,
(And one day in mine,)
The rivers of our lives will run on above ground, daffodils growing
And Spring snow melting on their banks.
Page(s) 79
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