NIGHT SEQUENCE, III

a night with slight awakenings

I breathe in spite of myself

caught up in impossible longings –

tall grass smooth beside my legs,

wheat like an inland sea

and if we lie down together

we will float on the surface of a dream

stalks of wheat

closing overhead

earth-scent rising

to hover upon our lips –

like hunger

like waiting

like listening to the wind at dawn

those small ripples of forgetting

sadder, even,

than this ineffable night

or a simple separation

Susan Smith Nash

October 12, 2001