Thursday, October 12, 2006

October (section I)

Is it winter again, is it cold again,
didn't Frank just slip on the ice,
didn't he heal, weren't the spring seeds planted


didn't the night end,
didn't the melting ice
flood the narrow gutters


wasn't my body
rescued, wasn't it safe


didn't the scar form, invisible
above the injury


terror and cold,

didn't they just end, wasn't the back garden
harrowed and planted--


I remember how the earth felt, red and dense,

in stiff rows, weren't the seeds planted,
didn't vines climb the south wall


I can't hear your voice
for the wind's cries, whistling over the bare ground


I no longer care
what sound it makes


when was I silenced, when did it first seem
pointless to describe that sound


what it sounds like can't change what it is--

didn't the night end, wasn't the earth
safe when it was planted


didn't we plant the seeds,
weren't we necessary to the earth,


the vines, were they harvested?



-- Louise Glück

1 comment:

LKD said...

Didn't didn't didn't didn't....

christ, those didn'ts are like a knife stabbing and stabbing.

Thanks for posting this. Feels like a gift.

Hell, it is a gift.

I love Louise too much. I love Louise above all others.