Readings in Contemporary Poetry

C.D. Wright


ONENESS


As surely as it is about air
   about light and about earth

Water will seep between fingers
   gathered in a gentle fist

For what good a wooden fence
   against breath fuming with fire

What good to point out the flower path
   if the sugar bag is empty

What good blowing the clarinet
   if blowing only makes one ugly

For as surely as wind unlocks
   car doors and cabinets

Young men wander off with their testes
   to part the perineum's grasses

And when they come to the little stream
   each tenses against the other

And against anything unforseen
   and under each pair of skin

She discovers his unassailable otherness
   and under each pair of skin

He discovers her moisture, dark, fecundity
   for as surely as it is about air

About light and about earth
   gathered in a gentle fist

Water will seep between fingers
   for the unknown must remain unknown

I know that and you know that
   flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone


© 1995



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