Laura Sheahen’s poems have been published in MiPOesias, In Posse Review, The Dark Horse, Orbis, Stirring and other journals; one poem was recently chosen to be recorded for the audio zine Whale Sound. She lives in Rome, Italy and work in humanitarian aid.
Summer 2011
Table of Contents - Vol. VII, No. 2
Poetry Fiction Translations Reviews
Laura Sheahen
the fauna of the night
--Auden on
Freud
the deer graze serenely
grey fur and grey grasses
vague moonlight
obscuring
their silver-edged shadows
this before-nightmare landscape
waits soundlessly
ether ripples like water
they stiffen
the deer quiver together
their eyes dilate and glimmer
thin
arteries narrow
the dream begins now
After
I can bear much, who have borne your mystery through.
Small pangs are
nothing, famine once endured—
Everything else is easy after you.
Sifting your silence for a single clue
Taught me to hear what whispers
back of words—
I can hear much, who heard that silence through.
I can feel lichen curl and spiders move
I who could sense your weak
pulse as it stirred—
Everything else is easy. After you
I can go down to beetle darkness too,
Learn how to breathe through
veil-shrouds and immured.
I can breathe dust, who breathed your mystery
through.
I can wait long, who waited where roots grew
Then pulled them loose
and broke out, almost cured.
Everything else is easy after you—
And I can look into the sun as it renews.
The vision is strong if the
edges are passion-blurred—
I can see far, who could not see you through.
Everything else is easy after you.
© Laura Sheahen
