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

Poetry    Fiction    Translations     Reviews

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