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We Shall Be As Fine Fair Things
Jul. 22nd, 2014 05:39 amWe would be beholden to love, as you say,
and stand out in that field, bare and unarmed
and helpless before it,
having given over all defense, and laid aside
every shielding denial
and you may find it demeaning, alarming
too great a risk answered only by such an intangible reward.
I think you have only known hearth-kin love and
that is a fat, docile, drowsy, dun-colored thing,
of comfort and common pleasantries,
of small pleasures given at little cost,
and that is nice enough.
But oh,
only we shall be fine fair things, that glisten in the sun
we shall be as gentle woodland creatures that slip
through passages of trees, unclothed, unwary, mute,
half glimpsed by stamping travellers in sturdy boots who pause
in the cool wood but do not linger.
We shall be as wild things, not pinned to this world
and unheeding of its strictures
and, with teeth and claws made ready, proceeding outward,
passed through the outmost gate, broke free.
We shall not believe we are too wise to be so moved,
for we will be as the lovers that the gods did bless
with a caress of their golden hands atop our heads
and under their protection, stand unflinching,
We shall be unscrimping as children,
who live with lavish wonder,
who do not expect harm and are unharming,
and we shall not shy back from the sight
of our misshapen, mouldering,
briny hearts, long left hidden and unattended
but cradle them between us with greatest care.
We shall be
of the earth and from our great vantage, above it,
and settling in, descending down to our loamy rest,
we shall not even then be parted,
and be never bound and never made to shoulder the yoke
of dutiful forbearance, never as those penitents,
harnessed to one another, who fear to speak and be heard
and instead are mummified by the winding sheet of secrets kept,
and kept, until they spoil.
We shall be as every encompassing notion,
and every disparate, fading note and the silent breathing between--
We shall be all of these,
if only we may at first begin.
and stand out in that field, bare and unarmed
and helpless before it,
having given over all defense, and laid aside
every shielding denial
and you may find it demeaning, alarming
too great a risk answered only by such an intangible reward.
I think you have only known hearth-kin love and
that is a fat, docile, drowsy, dun-colored thing,
of comfort and common pleasantries,
of small pleasures given at little cost,
and that is nice enough.
But oh,
only we shall be fine fair things, that glisten in the sun
we shall be as gentle woodland creatures that slip
through passages of trees, unclothed, unwary, mute,
half glimpsed by stamping travellers in sturdy boots who pause
in the cool wood but do not linger.
We shall be as wild things, not pinned to this world
and unheeding of its strictures
and, with teeth and claws made ready, proceeding outward,
passed through the outmost gate, broke free.
We shall not believe we are too wise to be so moved,
for we will be as the lovers that the gods did bless
with a caress of their golden hands atop our heads
and under their protection, stand unflinching,
We shall be unscrimping as children,
who live with lavish wonder,
who do not expect harm and are unharming,
and we shall not shy back from the sight
of our misshapen, mouldering,
briny hearts, long left hidden and unattended
but cradle them between us with greatest care.
We shall be
of the earth and from our great vantage, above it,
and settling in, descending down to our loamy rest,
we shall not even then be parted,
and be never bound and never made to shoulder the yoke
of dutiful forbearance, never as those penitents,
harnessed to one another, who fear to speak and be heard
and instead are mummified by the winding sheet of secrets kept,
and kept, until they spoil.
We shall be as every encompassing notion,
and every disparate, fading note and the silent breathing between--
We shall be all of these,
if only we may at first begin.
