———Ecclesiastes 12:1, 6
———Song of Songs 2:16

 

Before
————-—Before the days come
————-—When I shall say I have no pleasure in them

When the golden bowl

owl                              

Old

                                    Person
                         Old
                               —————-—Person
                                    ————-—      Old
                                          Old
                                          Old
                                                Person

*

be broken

*

the wheel broken at

my beloved is mine

I need to do two things

and I am his

Write the truth about the plague year the bardo
(It is very like the Holland Tunnel endless gray)

Take my bulletproof vest             off, take it off

I mean I need
I mean I need to love with the love that is milk before the pitcher
shatters

Finally I did so with my mother          love            flawed  /  flowed                   

I do it in moments      with my man

down the mountain we go

not running      careful not to trip

over a root or a rock

and fall and break

a leg bone or skull

*

down the mountain we go toddling

never too late

smoke no help me

mushroom no help me

shekhinah help me

to love without cause without cease

 

 

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Alicia Ostriker’s most recent poetry collection is The Volcano and After: Selected and New Poems 2002–2019 (Pitt Poetry Series). She was New York State Poet from 2018 to 2021. Essays on her work are at scalar.usc.edu/works/everywoman-her-own-theology/essays-on-ostriker.