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Blueacre

Monica Youn

   Lamentation (Martha Graham, 1930)

  What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of

ion!  Lamentations "#13

 

Wordless, ceaseless,

a second, seamless s$in,

this %lue refrain

sings of comfort,

camouflage, the rarest

right&to remain

faceless, featureless,

the %arest rune of ruin#

a chess%oard pa'n

that rears up into a castlethen topples in defeat,

an eposed vein

on a stretchedout throat

 pulsing frantically

as if to drain

un'anted thoughts

into the %ody*s reservoir& 

an in$y stain

 %luer than %lushing,

truer than trusting,

the shado' +one

at the core of the flame& 

too intense, too airless

to long remain

enveloped, as if 

a moth lured to the light

'ere trapped, se'n

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 %ac$ in its cocoon,

the 'ay the pitiless

mind goes on

shapema$ing& 

gamma, lam%da, chi& 

a lin$ed chain

of association no less

 %inding for %eing sil$en,

a finemeshed net thro'n

over the ehausted

animal&having given up

its vague, vain

efforts to escape,

and no' struggling

simply to sustain

a sho' of resistance,

to etend a lim% to'ard

etremity, to glean

one glimpse of light,

one gasp of air, then folding

in'ard, diving do'n

into the %lue pool

at the %ody*s hollo' center,

there to float, and dro'n