LOY, Mina

Parturition

I am the centre

Of a circle of pain

Exceeding its boundaries in every direction

The business of the bland sun

Has no affair with me

In my congested cosmos of agony

From which there is no escape

On infinitely prolonged nerve-vibrations

Or in contraction

To the pinpoint nucleus of being

…..


Love Song VII

Once in a mezzanino

The starry ceiling

Vaulted an unimaginable family

Bird-like abortions

With human throats

And Wisdom’s eyes

Who wore lamp-shade red dresses

And woolen hair

One bore a baby

In a padded porte-enfant

Tied with a sarsenet ribbon

To her goose’s wings

But for the abominable shadows

I would have lived

Among their fearful furniture

To teach them to tell me their secrets

Before I guessed

— Sweeping the brood clean out

Love Song IX

We might have coupled

In the bed-ridden monopoly of a moment

Or broken flesh with one another

At the profane communion table

Where wine is spill’t on promiscuous lips

We might have given birth to a butterfly

With the daily-news

Printed in blood on its wings

Love Song XIII

The wind stuffs the scum of the white street

Into my lungs and my nostrils

Exhilarated birds

Prolonging flight into the night

Never reaching