This Morning

A Wedding in Hell (1994)

Enter without knocking, hard-working ant.I’m just sitting here mulling overWhat to do this dark, overcast day?It was a night of the radio turned down low,Fitful sleep, vague, troubling dreams.I woke up lovesick and confused.I thought I heard Estella in the garden singingAnd some bird answering her,But it was the rain. Dark tree tops swayingAnd whispering. “Come to me my desire,“I said. And she came to me by and by,Her breath smelling of mint, her tongueWetting my cheek, and then she vanished.Slowly day came, a gray streak of daylightTo bathe my hands and face in.Hours passed, and then you crawledUnder the door, and stopped before me.You visit the same tailors the mourners do,Mr. Ant. I like the silence between us,The quiet—that holy state even the rainKnows about. Listen to her begin to fall,As if with eyes closed,Muting each drop in her wild-beating heart.