Myra Schneider
Narcissus
You didn’t see the geese, their long necks
doubled in the looking-glass distance
or the sun sink with two scarlet cheeks.
Your eyes were fixed on the white bloom of skin.
You didn’t touch the insect dots on the lake
or the rings rising and widening from a stream
that travelled untouched by the stillness round it.
You were entranced by a circle of parted lips.
You didn’t hear water spouting as if
from an udder then sucking at stones, or trees
played by the wind - only the sad voice
you’d refused, saying and saying your words.
You didn’t tremble as winter stripped reeds
of fleshy green, crushed brittle stalks,
strung crystal harps from willow twigs.
You weren’t puzzled by buds undeterred by frost.
Feverish with longing you leant down
to kiss, found implacable glass had trapped
the one you loved with pondweed hairs
and lacy fronds but smashed through
to reality, drowned. And a flower sprang up
pale as your face, thin as your thoughts,
its scent potent as desire - a warning
not to refuse the world without, within.
doubled in the looking-glass distance
or the sun sink with two scarlet cheeks.
Your eyes were fixed on the white bloom of skin.
You didn’t touch the insect dots on the lake
or the rings rising and widening from a stream
that travelled untouched by the stillness round it.
You were entranced by a circle of parted lips.
You didn’t hear water spouting as if
from an udder then sucking at stones, or trees
played by the wind - only the sad voice
you’d refused, saying and saying your words.
You didn’t tremble as winter stripped reeds
of fleshy green, crushed brittle stalks,
strung crystal harps from willow twigs.
You weren’t puzzled by buds undeterred by frost.
Feverish with longing you leant down
to kiss, found implacable glass had trapped
the one you loved with pondweed hairs
and lacy fronds but smashed through
to reality, drowned. And a flower sprang up
pale as your face, thin as your thoughts,
its scent potent as desire - a warning
not to refuse the world without, within.
Page(s) 38
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The