Delaying the Inevitable

A Poem in Praise of Indecision

Penelope at Her Loom (Musée d’Orsay)

---

Delaying the Inevitable

I should like to meet
while there is still time
in gardens of the city
to ask you about love.

Is love still common 
among the people?
The price of flowers
suggests otherwise.

We conspire together
over rhododendrons
listening to couples
barter their secrets.

Could we have known
how bedroom curiosity
would keep us erecting
our palaces of justice?

You there! Drop trou!
Show us which father
has fleshed your body!
Pharaoh wants to know.

Meanwhile, a landscape
extends to the horizon
so painted like the gods
were indifferent to men.

-

---