Poem by William Matthews
The Cloister
The last light of July evening drained
into the streets below. My love and I had hard
things to say and hear and we sat over
wine, faltering, picking our words carefully.
The afternoon before I had lain across
my bed and my cat leapt up to lie
alongside me, purring and slowly
growing dozy. By this ritual I can
clear some clutter from my baroque brain.
And into that brief vacancy the image
of a horse cantered, coming straight at me,
and I knew it brought hard talk and hurt
and fear. How did we do? A medium job,
which is well above average. But because
she had opened her heart to me as far
as she did, I saw her fierce privacy,
like a gnarled, luxuriant tree all hung
with disappointments, and I knew
that to love her I must love the tree
and the nothing it cares for me.
________________________
The Cloister
The last light of July evening drained
into the streets below. My love and I had hard
things to say and hear and we sat over
wine, faltering, picking our words carefully.
The afternoon before I had lain across
my bed and my cat leapt up to lie
alongside me, purring and slowly
growing dozy. By this ritual I can
clear some clutter from my baroque brain.
And into that brief vacancy the image
of a horse cantered, coming straight at me,
and I knew it brought hard talk and hurt
and fear. How did we do? A medium job,
which is well above average. But because
she had opened her heart to me as far
as she did, I saw her fierce privacy,
like a gnarled, luxuriant tree all hung
with disappointments, and I knew
that to love her I must love the tree
and the nothing it cares for me.
________________________
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