The Senses Barely or The Necessities of Life Poem by Rosmarie Waldrop

for Sophie Hawkes
I (Weapons)

doubled corners
of the situation


the words duped by this dialectic
know
the pose of "brushing against"


insistence
on detail


severe eyelashes

the weapons must
be kept in order

(take the
game
of courtesy
of charm)


her knees crossed
over the manner of
his undressing her


a chord
(deceptively resonant)
a strength of image
but scanty provisions interrupt
her concerns for doors



into sleep
focuses
the story can be carried in two hands


finale:
I have turned on
with shifting strands
of light