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The narrows by Jim Carrol

for Carol Kane

That is the way you are, always given

to silence. so I don't care anymore

about these green leaves in my carpet

about the death of an historical figure

about your voice.

you were thinking about a red curtain

that we might hide behind. I was

thinking about the freedom of your shadow,

last night, when this livid sky unfolded

its vault of a thousand swords and the air

we were breathing seemed our own

I'm glad that you're able to breath

I'm glad that you're able to distinguish me

from the lights along the thruway.

I mean don't both of us illuminate

the direction in which you are taking?

and don't both weep nervously above

the moist pavement where you move

I'd like to watch myself holding you

above the cool shore of something really vast

like a vast sea, or ocean.

and when I was through watching

I'd become someone else,

seducing the heavy waters.

allowing nothing to change.

as the sands are changing and the night comes

and we're not aware of all this endlessness,

which is springing up like the moonlight Sonata

ascending from the glare of a thousand frightened moans. next -- previous