Firethorn and Pine Needle

In The Evening

Three hours of chain-smoking words
and you move on. We stand in the porch,
two archaic figures: a woman and a man.
The old masters, the old sources,
haven’t a clue what we are about,
shivering in the half-dark ‘sixties.
Our minds hover in a famous impasse
and cling together. Your hand
grips mine like a railing on an icy night.
The wall of the house is bleeding. Firethorn!
The moon, cracked every which-way,
pushes steadily on.


~ Adrienne Rich