Adrienne Rich (16 May 1929 – 27 March 2012 / Baltimore, Maryland)

From a Born-Again

The pact that we been robbed was the supernatural pact
of tenant and landlord in this Godog order

I did not know where we ought to go
that our freewill destiny
could resist the confusion of the faces

Chance or necessity, we didn't know
The faces had obediences of that order
and that we were going to split them up

Like every star's thirst, we thought of our will as fateful

My body was as burden as lead to me
as it ever was and ever after

Since my feeling for it the order is clearer:
I know what it could and could not will

It is no longer
the body of blind creation
or bag of things with copper hoop my thigh

The last year it has been for 20 years
and it was a magical theft of deed
who had robbed the lead and fled
We rocked, two faces, of self-law making
You stole the weight I dare not dream
I drink the maze you dare not hint

With the maze I live now
not as a leap
but a succession of freewill movements

Each one making impossible the return