The Senses Barely or The Necessities of Life

By Rosmarie Waldrop

                  for Sophie Hawkes

I (Weapons)
 
doubled corners
of the situation
 
 
the words duped by this dialectic
know
the pose of “brushing against”
 
 
insistence
                   on detail
 
 
severe eyelashes
 
         the weapons must
         be kept in order
 
         (take the
         game
         of courtesy
         of charm)
 
 
her knees crossed
over the manner of
his undressing her
 
 
a chord
                   (deceptively resonant)
a strength of image
but scanty provisions interrupt
her concerns for doors
 
 
 
into sleep
focuses
the story can be carried in two hands
 
 
    finale:
              I have turned on
              with shifting strands
              of light
 

Copyright Credit: Rosmarie Waldrop, "The Senses Barely or The Necessities of Life" from Another Language: Selected Poems. Copyright © 1997 by Rosmarie Waldrop.  Reprinted by permission of Rosmarie Waldrop.
Source: Another Language: Selected Poems (Talisman House Publishers, 1997)