Strike sparks Selected poems, 1980-2002

Topography After we flew across the country we got in bed, laid our bodies intricately together, like maps laid face to face, East to West, my San Francisco against your New York, your Fire Island against my Sonoma, my New Orleans deep inside your Texas, your Idaho bright on my Great Lakes, my Kansas burning against your Kansas your Kansas burning against my Kansas, your Eastern Standard Time pressing into my Pacific Time, my Mountain Time beating against your Central Time, your sun rising swiftly from the right my sun rising swiftly from the left your moon rising slowly from the left my moon rising slowly from the right until all four bodies of the sky burn above us, sealing us together, all our cities twin cities, all our states united, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. First Thanksgiving When she comes back, from college, I will see the skin of her upper arms, cool, matte, glossy. She will hug me, my old soupy chest against her breasts, I will smell her hair! She will sleep in this apartment, her sleep like an untamed, good object, like a soul in a body. She came into my life the second great arrival, fresh from the other world -- which lay, from within him, within me. Those nights, I fed her to sleep, week after week, the moon rising, and setting, and waxing -- whirling, over the months, in a steady blur, around our planet. Now she doesn't need love like that, she has had it. She will walk in glowing, we will talk, and then, when she's fast asleep, I'll exult to have her in that room again, behind that door! As a child, I caught bees, by the wings, and held them, some seconds, looked into their wild faces, listened to them sing, then tossed them back into the air -- I remember the moment the arc of my toss swerved, and they entered the corrected curve of their departure. Excerpted from Strike Sparks: Selected Poems, 1980-2002 by Sharon Olds All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.