Connie’s Reviews > My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree: Selected Poems > Status Update

LOVE’S DANCE

6. I'm liquid

Capri.
Liquid rhythm shimmers
In afternoon light. I am
This island's daughter,
A rock in water.
At dusk,
I spread myself
Across the distances
Crying into wet air. Pain
Wakes and dances for you.
Pain peels back my clothes,
Bares my skin made taut
By the idea of your hands.
Wolf. Wild dog. When you
Flash the fresh blade
Of your smile, or
When you sink into me
Like a hook, I think
     The greatest of joys
     Must be reserved
     For the weak.


8. Centripetal. Central.

Radius. Radius.
We are the cross-
Bar of a living star
Whose every facet
Burns. A glory.
Spin and whorl.
Hurl and turn.
Centripetal. Central.
Centered over the eye
Of the center, that teeming,
Living core. I have no idea
What we've got
In our orbit, what may
Crush us like rubbish.
It snowed here once
In the mountains in June.
The white flakes rushed us
     With the frenzy of new love.
     But that was a lifetime ago.
     June has sweltered ever since.


13. Uncrowned Incorruptible

God strikes his holy bells—Ave Maria!—and
Your hand grabs mine. We, the uncrowned Righteous,
The uncrowned Incorruptible, mute of vows and
Ignorant of commandments. Our practiced restraint
Has earned us what? How many Sundays lived

In vain? There are laws and there is Law. There is love
And there is Love; Need and a nagging small want.
I would be happy to forsake everything they told me
To desire: glory, rejoicing, even death. To be left
With only a limitless holy blank. And you?

Do you remember our Old Testament phase,
Quaking at the fate of whole cities abruptly erased?
Now we're onto Jesus—those feet! those wrists!—
Though belief is a country that eludes us.
For ceremony, we light a mosquito coil,

Turn down the bed, whisper about small things
Like mornings on the beach, swimming farther
And farther into cold rhythmic waves, almost
Eager for the greedy underside of day.
God is ravenous unending fright.

     Blessed Virgin, safe on the shore, or high up
     On the cliff overlooking every sea: forget me.

Mid-September 1986

情舞

6. 我就是水

《卡普里岛》、《卡普里岛》
如水的节奏波光闪耀
我就是渔岛之女
我把自己铺在夜色里
眼泪滔滔
柔情似水横流
我的痛苦千姿百态
围绕你翩翩起舞
弹性的肌肤任凭你
任凭你蹂躏
   我的快感是苦难的快感
   我的快感是柔弱者的快感
   我的柔弱胜过刚强

8. 没有心就没有圆

你是半径
我是半径
这是一颗肉体的星星
各个部位闪烁光芒
各个部位都非常美好
向心力
向心
向——心
你围绕着我之心
我围绕着你之心
没有心就没有圆
有心的圆才是真实的圆
不知是什么巫术
一个个虚假的圆也团团旋转
向我们合拢、合拢
我们被挤扁，像一张圆圆的废纸
在人海中飘零
   六月雪是昨天的故事
   从此六月再没有下雪


13. 没有加冕的教徒

辉煌的钟声敲起来
我们以手相握膜拜《圣母颂》
我们是没有加冕的教徒
没有宣誓
不懂戒律
从早到晚安分守己
我所要的东西没有得到
到处都是虚伪的陷阱
我随时准备比鸿毛还轻的献身
我无法避开那个忌讳的数字
恐怖的面目时刻引诱我
我想挣脱时已被捕获
旧约书我们背了三遍
因此我们爱上耶稣
只有唯一可行的仪式
每天晚上点一盘蚊香
遗憾的是我们恨上了信奉
信奉什么就谈笑间把它砸碎
有一次我们信奉了自己
为表示自杀我们去海里洗澡
   童贞圣母，请不必担心
   我们从没有对你相信

1986年9月中旬