Adrienne Rich — If/As Though Time Exposres

i Glance into glittering moisture webbed in lashes unshed tears I’d guess as yours Known odor inhaled years later in a brief social kiss sudden conjuncture soap, breath, hair other embraces diffused once, again, time’s exhilarations ii Is there a doctor in the house who in his plain mindful way cared for his patients through pain rain and snow who at each and every grave side knew what could be done he’d done And where have all the patients gone who wanted (more than one) a tending hand across the forehead at the end And what’s the house? iii They’d say she was humorless didn’t go to the parties giggle show white teeth So would suspend her in their drained definitions Her body had nipples, eyes a tongue and other parts mirthful obscene which rose from love quite often hilarious into daylight even forgetting why iv When I stretched out my legs beyond your wishful thinking into the long history they were made for running caught the train you missed sought you eye-level at the next station You having run the whole way to seize my face between your hands your kind of victory or benediction then we swerved down-tunnel in separate cars What is it to catch yourself mirror-twinned in an underwater window what about speed matching technology and desire getting off at the last stop: dispersed v You’ve got ocean through sheet glass brandy and firedog ocean in its shaking looks back at you with a blurred eye Who’s that reflected naked and sundered reaching a hand Go down to the beach, walk in the wind Pick up the washed-in shell at your foot Shell castle built on sand your body and what’s your soul? Is there a ghost-in-waiting? time to bring that one in