November 22, 2005

"Overheard over S.E. Asia"

Denise Levertov poem, "Overheard over S.E. Asia"

'White phosphorous, white phosphorous

mechanical snow,

where are you falling?'

'I am falling impartially on roads and roofs,

on bamboo thickets, on people.

My name recalls rich seas on rainy nights,

each drop that hits the surface eliciting

luminous response from a million algae.

My name is a whisper of sequins. Ha!

Each of them is a disk of fire,

I am the snow that burns.

I fall

wherever men send me to fall -

but I prefer flesh, so smooth, so dense:

I decorate it in black, and seek

the bone.

Posted by duver001 at November 22, 2005 11:46 AM | TrackBack
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