Rotogravure
There was another life we knew each other
We were poor and hungry we lived in a palace
Cats supped in our place aloft we ate air
Trees were our nursemaids the moss sang to us
The door was heavy the reed gate was smashed
We drove through smoke we rode in carriages
We were far from the shore the ocean was near
The sky was jute the wet earth gray ash
We spoke in English in Russian we argued
The moon wore a mask the sun mirrored its moods
In the desert the thirsty went down to the water
Hummingbirds swarmed lions roared in quarries
Silence is an envelope noise is paper
This is a story poems come after stories
Copyright Credit: Cynthia Zarin, “Rotogravure” from The Watercourse. Copyright © 2002 by Cynthia Zarin. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
Source: The Watercourse (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002)