TEARS
IN
SLEEP
Louise Bogan |
All night the cocks crew, under a moon like day, And I, in the cage of sleep, on a stranger's breast, Shed tears, like a task not to be put away -- In the false light, false grief in my happy bed, A labor of tears, set against joy's undoing. I would not wake at your word, I had tears to say. I clung to the bars of the dream and they were said, And pain's derisive hand had given me rest From the night giving off flames, and the dark renewing. |
From The Blue Estuaries: poems 1923-1968, Louise Bogan (Noonday Press, 1995).
All other content Copyright © 1996, Marc Mosko.
Poem Copyright © 1968, Louise Bogan.