Tuesday, May 01, 2018

Repeat

May Day
Phillis Levin

I've decided to waste my life again,
Like I used to: get drunk on
The light in the leaves, find a wall 
Against which something can happen, 

Whatever may have happened 
Long ago—let a bullet hole echoing 
The will of an executioner, a crevice 
In which a love note was hidden, 

Be a cell where a struggling tendril 
Utters a few spare syllables at dawn. 
I’ve decided to waste my life 
In a new way, to forget whoever 

Touched a hair on my head, because 
It doesn’t matter what came to pass, 
Only that it passed, because we repeat 
Ourselves, we repeat ourselves. 

I’ve decided to walk a long way 
Out of the way, to allow something 
Dreaded to waken for no good reason, 
Let it go without saying, 

Let it go as it will to the place 
It will go without saying: a wall 
Against which a body was pressed 
For no good reason, other than this.

From May Day by Phillis Levin. Copyright © 2008 by Phillis Levin.
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/may-day

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