read by
Christopher Logue
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Tonight I write sadly
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Tonight I write sadly
Write for example
Little grasshopper shelter from
The midnight frost in the scarecrows sleeve
I’m writing myself
The night wind throbs in the sky
Tonight I write so wearily
Write for example
I wanted her and at times it was me she wanted
Write: the rain we watched last fall,
Has it fallen this year too?
She wanted me and at times it was her I wanted
Yet it has gone that want
What’s more I do not care
It is more terrible than my despair over losing her
The night always barked growing enormous without her
And my comfortless tongue talking about her
Red fox barred by ivory
Well does it matter I loved too weakly to keep her?
The night ignores such trivial disputes
She is not here that’s all
Far off someone is singing as if to bring her back
I look and run to the end of the road
And I shout and shout her name
My voice comes back the same but weaker
This night is the same night
It whitens the same tree, casts the same shadow
It is a dark, as long, as deep and as endurable
As any other night
It’s true I don’t want her
But perhaps I want her
Love’s not so brief that I forget her so
Nevertheless I shall forget her
And, alas, as if by accident, a day will pass
In which I shall not think about her even once
And this the last line I shall write her.
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