Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SUNSET OVER HANDMADE CHURCH, by JANE MILLER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SUNSET OVER HANDMADE CHURCH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Like, / people get emotionally tied to
Last Line: Ghosts.
Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Love Affairs; Travel; Journeys; Trips


Like,
people get emotionally tied to
the first person who
fucks them up
the ass,
god willing,

we were driving toward Biarritz
& stopped to call Alexis,
exhilaration in our voices
as we described the scenery, an emotion
akin to Carlos Williams's
man swinging a shirt over his head
or Hass's shouting hello
to an empty house,

& as
the one pleasure of the traveler
holding a lemon to his nose on a windless day
is to know he can leave,

the week we saw Arles
we enlarged everything
out of our minds,
Arles exactly as painted by Van Gogh,
the goldenrod, wheat, apple trees,
no one
tending them in all the hours we drove,
for the French, odd,
not a soul,

the difference being
we had each other & were still
believing in a god,

menage a trois, the next day slept between mountains
where the proprietor caught trout
& we ate in the poised and spirited
style of women alone
among men in the immaculate
dining room,
like a picture of a country dining room serving rose pears.

What a night in a featherbed
in a room with a high ceiling,
life has been good, good, finding
our empty purse & providing
the wine we drink under a quilt.
I did not want anyone to see that my face was so happy,

because I had slipped into the face of my dead,
who know so precisely what to relive
with their heads calmed
like a unicorn in the lap of a virgin,
& through me drive through France

with you, this mental self who
buys a paper & crosses the square for a beer
in Tourrette-sur-Loup, scaling the terraces of the olive
trees after lunch
to play the wooden flute.

It's this distance from you,
this freedom we have to forgive,
that keeps us on a tether
like goats, exactly like

ghosts.





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