TWO POEMS
By Frederick Seidel
THE SOUL MATE
Your eyes gazed
Sparkling and dark as hooves,
They had seen you through languor and error.
They were so still. They were a child.
They were wet like hours
And hours of cold rain.
Sixty-seven flesh inches
Utterly removed, of spirit
For the sake of nobody,
That one could love but not know–
Like death if you are God!
So close to me, my soul mate, like a projection.
I'd loved you gliding through St. Paul's sniffing
The torch of yellow flowers,
The torch had not lit the way.
Winter flowers, yourself a flame
In winter. In the cold
Like a moth in a flame.
I seemed to speak,
I seemed never to stop.
You tossed your head back and a cloud
Of hair from your eyes,
You listened with the beautiful
Waiting look of someone
