Sunshield
– after Wyeth
There was that moment
Light cleared as if up from under her,
In her, and she lifted her arm
Across her brow against it; placid
In defense of an imagined harshness; it lingered
Over her lips & settled without insistence.
I had wanted him then to tell her that he loved her.
2. Farm Road
A blond tuft loosens from my taut braid. At day’s end
I turn against my longing and him, too.
When was the last hour I died like this? Gave over
to repose? Now, as if the hills themselves gather
ripe against me—Hemlock boughs thicken
in a weakening ochre. If he rested his arm
upon my hip to test restraint, I may be satisfied
and let his palm stray a moment there.
The back of my neck—open, flushes
for that translucent kiss only his eye
divined. But never will lips impart. Never
will he look across that luminous path
to lift from me his labor’s
unimagined weight.
– maureen alsop