I met your husband in a bookshop. His looks scared me shitless. Yet I followed him everywhere. Fear led to fascination. He could measure the temperature spectrum of stars, outdrink Faulkner and Hemingway together, fit perfect the shield around a berth hawser to keep out rats. He claimed ancestors among the Catawba and Shawnee. To work a spell, he would release their spirits from a leather pouch. But I guess he was right about me. And I'm sorry you and I ever touched each other. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WASHINGTON'S MONUMENT, FEBRUARY, 1885 by WALT WHITMAN A SONG FOR THE SINGLE TABLE ON NEW YEAR'S DAY by ELIZABETH FRANCES AMHERST VERSES TO RHYME WITH 'ROSE' (2) by JANE AUSTEN AN INVENTORY OF THE FURNITURE IN DR. PRIESTLEY'S STUDY by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD BALLADE OF MID-WINTER NIGHTS by CHARLOTTE LOUISE BERTLESEN WHY? by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON SONG OF THE DOVE by FREDRIKA BREMER OBSERVATIONS IN THE ART OF ENGLISH POESY: 11. TROCHAIC VERSE: THE SEVENTH EPIGRAM by THOMAS CAMPION |