Woloch has here composed a perfect and modern poem. This sort of thing has been on my mind a lot lately. In fact, with the fall comes a chance to shed off and burrow down. Maybe this year I will finally become a bear.
"On Faith" by Cecilia Woloch
On Faith
How do people stay true to each other?
When I think of my parents all those years
in the unmade bed of their marriage, not ever
longing for anything else —or: no, they must
have longed; there must have been flickerings,
stray desires, nights she turned from him,
sleepless, and wept, nights he rose silently,
smoked in the dark, nights that nest of breath
and tangled limbs must have seemed
not enough. But it was. Or they just
held on. A gift, perhaps, I've tossed out,
having been always too willing to fly
to the next love, the next and the next, certain
nothing was really mine, certain nothing
would ever last. So faith hits me late, if at all;
faith that this latest love won't end, or ends
in the shapeless sleep of death. But faith is hard.
When he turns his back to me now, I think:
disappear. I think: not what I want. I think
of my mother lying awake in those arms
that could crush her. That could have. Did not.
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3 comments:
This is beautiful. "lying awake in those arms that could crush her. That could have. Did not." Not everybody is so lucky. But not everybody is so brave, either.
Good luck with becoming a bear!
Bears are wonderful. I hope you become one. I have faith that my Bear and I will stay true to each other.
Woloch knew of what she wrote - her line "nights he rose silently,
smoked in the dark, nights that nest of breath
and tangled limbs must have seemed
not enough." was so real it seemed like my own memory.
ariel, good life is never for the lucky.
tsduff, I know...I know. It is so true as to almost be a personal violation.
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