Like a man who eats
from the shallow dish of his own skull
black starlight of his brain,
you stare
&
stare
&
stare,
paralyzed by what you cannot help
but see-that dark keyhole to
the castle of the crow
only deeper darkness illuminates,
then-brief candle shivering
in the wind, breath of the Ice Age-turning,
shut the door.
Back inside, above the fire, place
in vase of warm water melting boughs
promised soon to spring,
"flurry of yellow flowers"-the gold dream.
TED HUGHES
Tiresias
One time, Jupiter, happy to be idle,
Swept the cosmic mystery aside
And draining another goblet of ambrosia
Teased Juno, who drowsed in bliss beside him:
"This love of male and female's a strange business.
Fifty-fifty investment in the madness,
Yet she ends up with nine-tenths of the pleasure."
Juno's answer was: "A man might think so.
lt
needs more than a mushroom in your cup
To wake a wisdom that can fathom which
Enjoys the deeper pleasure, man or woman.
It
needs the solid knowledge of a soul
Who having lived and loved in woman's body
Has also lived and loved in the body of a man."
