After the teach-in

the warm womanwide of thigh,& the comfort of it-knowing your nipples like mine,& the likeness of it,watching the mirror make love,& the lovematch;the mirror of youin me.I have creamed my handsin the cave;I have known my mother.Years to get pastthe barrier reefs of words.We were natural togetheras two little girls in the bath.We hoped to…

Is it a voicelike a conduit,a plainspokenness to grief,the hairs of the headdancing on end,the blood swarmingwith the voicesof all those who have died,will die,& will also be born?Is it a catchin the throatthat awakens the eyes,is it in the eyes themselvesor is it somethingin the heart?I think it is pain-an openness to pain,so that…

as the wound cries for saltas the lover criesfor her unrequited loveras the ice cries outfor melting in the spring.My heart is a springthat pumps red blood.I would give my child,my girl child, my daughterthe vision of a motherwho does not flinchwhen the heavy heel of mancomes down,who loves the peniswhen it pumps rich red…

on the plume of smoke that risesin the air,riffling the pages of my lifeas if it were a book of poems,flipping throughpast & future.If I go back, back, back,riding the plume of smoke,I find I diedin childbirth in another life,died by fire in the life before that,died by water twice, or more.I pick out days&…

the primeval sack of oceanbroke,& I gave birth to youlittle woman,little carrot top,little turned-up nose,pushing you out of myselfas my motherpushedme out of herself,as her mother did,& her mother’s mother before her,all of us bornof woman.I am the second daughterof a second daughterof a second daughter,but you shall be the first.You shall see the phrase‘second…

A bespectacled artist called LearFirst perfected this smile in a sneer.He was clever and witty;He gave life to this ditty –That original author called Lear.