by margaret atwood


I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen
I would like to watch you
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head 
and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear 
I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway 
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in 
I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.

We danced toward
each other's wounds

with gentle step
and touched inside

and now the bleeding
has resumed

and all this blood
is hard to hide.

"I shall write a poem today", says my mind
Though I know, ultimately no verse will be designed
And many a day has gone astray
In wait of a single, inspired rhyme.

"I shall write a story today", claims my brain
Even as I watch my thoughts miss their train
And a screen stark white mocks my plight
While the cursor blinks expectantly in vain.

"Maybe I should take a walk", I surmise
And far above me, in the skies
A troubled bird drops a ****
And inspiration splats between my eyes.

She told me that we all came from stardust,
but she remains a heavenly body.
Gravity ***** me into her lovelust,
and all the beauty she embodies.

Her skin radiates like our sun's corona.
Her eyes gleam like the stars in the heavens above.
At heart, I feel like we came from the same nova,
But god wanted us to remain together as one through love.

She guides me safely through even the darkest days,
And as I reach her at last, her embrace warms me.
The galaxies in her eyes leave me in a daze,
Thinking how inside them is where I'd rather be.

My love, together we've traveled the ages and the cosmos,
Let's retire these bodies and explore the heavens as souls.