Grounds 18A

Christakos, Margaret (1962 - 0)

Original Text

Margaret Christakos, wipe. under. a. love (Toronto: Mansfield Press, 2000): 84.

1wipe beneath love until it is clean

2swept. i could do this daily

3alas i forget and then we are dirty again

4wretchedly dirty. even our speeches

5strafed with mud and misery and ill will.

6well, this hotel room, especially the white linen

7wheeling-in of a common club sandwich,

8helped, as does the sensual rescue, ingenuities

9we really should have tried earlier. beer

10is a decent aphrodisiac and included

11in the weekend package, my drunken compliments to your

12calf hairs and neckline, to this exhausted

13dawn that comes stealthy and voluptuous

14as quiet. lord we love our children

15yet this silence corrects us, connives

16for more silence, and so we must speak

17dialectically about love now. there is us and

18the umbrella organization, the mutual commission of us,

19to tidy up after, scrubbing as recommended

20under the sheets, occult as lovers again.

21wipe again. recommended alas

22us, wretchedly and strafed speak

23well, connives wheeling-in children helped,

24voluptuous we exhausted is your

25in included calf beer dawn

26ingenuities as sandwich, yet white linen

27for will. dialectically speeches the

28again to daily under clean

29clean again for

30the linen ingenuities

31in dawn your

32voluptuous well, helped,

33speak us, wipe

34alas

35THEREFORE:

36alas speak us, voluptuous well,

37in dawn the linen clean again

Notes

25] in: playing on "inn"? Back to Line

32] voluptuous well: sexual word-play. Back to Line

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

2011

Rhyme

unrhyming

Form

varying

Special Copyright