White silk gown – Sunday silk – yet
daily donned – tight-cuffed –
cool hands – folded - warm lap -
milk-white - under orange vest – and -
bearing – or to bear? –
two Legacies - from You, Sire –
this simple pair accompanying me -
twin-mirrored –
two poems yet to be read –
two words yet to be said –
to stimulate – a man -
circumferencing – unwritten future – to know – perhaps - which? -
kiss of need? as kid of goat –
little lips - innocent of teeth - tugged
as pulled red berry? Cherries fit
such little mouths. Or -
kiss of love? milk-white skin
brushed first – moustache – then
body’s delirious shudder –
ecstatic contract!
two red berries – red-plucked –
this first?
Will there be a morning - mooring –
you as sunrise -
after wild and feathered night,
bondage as play - so sweet?
Or – are these berries – to grow parched?
A rose - cease to bloom - before the flower taken -
autumn berries - heavy-hanging –
dropping – unmilked – unmouthed -
love put away - put in a drawer,
hiding brave face in hand?
I thus eventual – be –
awaiting further chance
of eternity?
You cannot put a fire out –
you love me – you are sure -
but – which is it, sir?
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
OK I'm coming out with my hands up.. almost every significant phrase comes from the lady herself. It's the Reader's Digest edit of her 1500? poems...and it arose, dear reader, from a poets' discussion about even passionate lady poets of the 19th century not mentioning their bodies...