Adrienne Rich — Archaic

Cold wit leaves me cold this time of the world Multifoliate disorders straiten my gait Minuets don’t become me Been wanting to get out see the sights but the exits are slick with people going somewhere fast every one with a shared past and a mot juste And me so out of step with my late-night staircase inspirations my utopian slant Still, I’m alive here in this village drawn in a tightening noose of ramps and cloverleafs but the old directions I drew up for you are obsolete Here’s how to get to me I wrote Don’t misconstrue the distance take along something for the road everything might be closed this isn’t a modern place You arrived starving at midnight I gave you warmed-up food poured tumblers of brandy put on Les Barricades Mystérieuses -- ­the only jazz in the house We talked for hours of barricades lesser and greater sorrows ended up laughing in the thicksilver birdstruck light