Sappho, Tr. By Anne Carson, From “If Not Winter: Fragments Of Sappho,” (x)

To My Twenty-Four-Year-Old Self - Elisa Gonzales

Sometimes you feel more intimacy with the woman who lives

in the apartment opposite—twenty years older, probably,

though she looks barely ten, devoted to evading age—

than with anyone stroked or kissed or otherwise handled.

You sit naked on the white sofa, lights on, looking into her home,

lights on.

She paints her toenails, watches a black-and-white film,

Hitchcock, maybe: there’s a woman with a platinum chignon.

She applies a green mask. A cream. A mystery ointment.

When you meet an older woman who resembles her, enough,

you do the obvious thing.

That woman says, after, Don’t ever leave me

but when you report to your friends

you change her words to Don’t ever forget me.

Typical of us, the lie and the lie.

Why couldn’t you tell the truth? That’s what I’ve come to ask.

Not to her—to your friends.

I can’t remember why it embarrassed you.

Was it that she was old enough not to bare her throat?

Or was it shame at yourself, for misunderstanding

how well you were understood?

(It always comes back to knowledge with us, doesn’t it?)

Maybe it doesn’t matter: you’ll think of this woman

so often throughout the years

that by some lights

you’ll have kept your vow.

Be, be as you've always been

Be like the love that discovered the sin

That freed the first man and will do so again

And, lover, be good to me

Be that hope when Eden was lost

It's been deaf to our laughter since the master was crossed

Which side of the wall really suffers that cost?

And, lover, be good to me

Be as you've always been

Be as you've always been

Be, be as you've always been

True to the time and the placе you've been given

Your heart in thе world, and a world there within

And, lover, be good to me

Be there and just as you stand

Or be like the rose that you'd hold in your hand

That grows bold in a barren and an uneasy land

And, lover, be good to me

And, be as you've always been

Be as you've always been

Be as you've always been

Be as you've always been

— Ray Bradbury, from “Fahrenheit 451.”

Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, 1940

Details, suicide of Lucretia by various artists, (1), (2), (3)

Nicole W. Lee, from "Even the Dust"

A great Hope fell You heard no noise The Ruin was within Oh cunning Wreck That told no tale And let no Witness in

The mind was built for mighty Freight For dread occasion planned How often foundering at Sea Ostensibly, on Land

A not admitting of the wound Until it grew so wide That all my Life had entered it And there were troughs beside -

A closing of the simple lid That opened to the sun Until the tender Carpenter Perpetual nail it down -

Emily Dickinson, from Envelope Poems

Crawling out of the swamps where you buried me like the setting sun and the moon rises an enemy.

Carolina Outcrop. Never Trust a Woman Who Writes.

Circe by John Collier (1885)

Just your mouth

Just your love

Just your anointing oils

Just your name

Just your chambers

Just your love

And my mother's sons

And my own vineyard

And my soul

Just your flock

Just your companions

Just your kids

Just your cheeks

Just your neck

Just your couch

And my perfume

And my beloved

And my breasts

And my beloved

And my love

Just your eyes

And my beloved

Our couch

Our house

Our rafters

And my love

And my beloved

Just your shadow

Just your fruit

Just your banner over me

Just your left hand

Just your right hand

And my beloved

And my beloved

Our wall

And my beloved

And my love

And my fair one

And my love

And my fair one

And my dove

Just your face

Just your voice

Just your voice

Just your face

Our vineyards

And my beloved

Just your flock

And my beloved

And my bed

And my soul

And my soul

And my soul

And my soul

And my mother's house

Just your sword

Just your mother

Just your wedding

Just your hearth

And my love

Just your eyes

Just your vein

Just your hair

Just your teeth

Just your lips

Just your mouth

Just your cheeks

Just your veil

Just your neck

Just your two breasts

And my love

And my bride

And my heart

And my sister

And my bride

And my heart

Just your eyes

Just your necklace

Just your love

And my sister

And my bride

Just your love

Just your eyes

Just your lips

And my bride

Just your tongue

Just your garments

And my sister

And my bride

Just your shoes

And my garden

And my beloved

And my garden

And my sister

And my bride

And my mouth

And my spice

And my honeycomb

And my honey

And my wine

And my milk

And my heart

And my beloved

And my sister

And my love

And my dove

And my perfect one

And my head

And my locks

And my garment

And my feet

And my beloved

And my hand

And my heart

And my beloved

And my hands

And my fingers

And my beloved

And my beloved

And my soul

And my beloved

Just your beloved

Just your beloved

And my beloved

Just your head

Just your locks

Just your eyes

Just your cheeks

Just your lips

Just your arms

Just your body

Just your legs

Just your appearance

Just your speech

And my beloved

And my friend

Just your beloved

And my beloved

Just your garden

Just your flock

And my beloved

And my beloved

Just your flock

And my love

Just your eyes

Just your hair

Just your teeth

Just your cheeks

And my dove

And my perfect one

And my mother

And my fancy

And my prince

Just your feet

Just your rounded thighs

Just your navel

Just your belly

Just your two breasts

Just your neck

Just your eyes

Just your nose

Just your head

Just your flowing looks

Just your breasts

Just your breasts

Just your breath

Just your kisses

And my beloved

Just your desire

And my beloved

And my love

Our goals

And my beloved

And my modest breast

And my mother

And my power credits

Just your left hand

Just your right hand

And my beloved

Just your mother

Just your heart

Just your arm

Our sister

And my breasts

Just your eyes

And my vineyard

And my very own

And myself

Just your voice

And my beloved