This poem is taken from PN Review 230, Volume 42 Number 6, July - August 2016.
Six Poems
Co-respondent
That morning, N and the baby being asleep,
I sat down to write a rebuttal to one of your love-letters.
But you know how it is:
you set out to perform some ordinary task,
to buy the bread, maybe, or else I won’t be long,
just taking the videos back to the shop,
and then round a corner
the full majesty of the goddess Freya
strikes you in the face and blinds you.
Which was how it was. I cannot live in this world,
the goddess of beauty and death lounging
at street corners. Was this what I meant to write?
Anyway, I never took the videos back.
One of them was our film, if you remember,
or don’t think it odd that shared possessions
are alleged to define or fix relationship.
...
That morning, N and the baby being asleep,
I sat down to write a rebuttal to one of your love-letters.
But you know how it is:
you set out to perform some ordinary task,
to buy the bread, maybe, or else I won’t be long,
just taking the videos back to the shop,
and then round a corner
the full majesty of the goddess Freya
strikes you in the face and blinds you.
Which was how it was. I cannot live in this world,
the goddess of beauty and death lounging
at street corners. Was this what I meant to write?
Anyway, I never took the videos back.
One of them was our film, if you remember,
or don’t think it odd that shared possessions
are alleged to define or fix relationship.
...
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