H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

CARMEN BUGAN

(A shadow wrings her hands in a room full of light)

A shadow wrings her hands in a room full of light.

She lives in the possible palms of a lover––

How they made a violin of her body in his attic flat

And how morning arrived clear with loss

Like a knife slicing kisses.

She recalls the resolute music of sheets and limbs

Entangled in what has no name––

A spell, she thinks, destroyed with words.

This October wind comes through the window

Like he does––uninterrupted, caressing––

And vanishes the same, yet leaves

Invisible traces of love on her cheeks.

He will permeate her like absence

Until she will disappear at evening––

Without reproach, unshadow, unself

And not alone, once again.

She tells him that the peonies and geraniums and roses and lilies

Grow so strongly it must be a good sign: he will get better, she says.

This is the hour when there is only time for

Delicate colors around the gray house, the locus trees in the yard

From which they take armfuls of blossoms and bring them in

And fill the rooms with white scent of blown spring.