The Atlantic | January 2002 | Postolka (Prague)

Contents | January 2002

In This Issue (Contributors)

More on poetry from The Atlantic Monthly.

Also by Christian Wiman:
Darkness Starts (2001)

The Atlantic Monthly | January 2002

Postolka (Prague)

by Christian Wiman

.....

Hear Christian Wiman read this poem (in RealAudio)

When I was learning words
and you were in the bath
there was a flurry of small birds
and in the aftermath

of all that panicked flight—
as if the red dusk willed
a concentration of its light—
a falcon on the sill.

It scanned the orchard's bowers,
then pane by pane it eyed
the stories facing ours
but never looked inside.

I called you in to see.
And when you steamed the room
and naked next to me
stood dripping, as a bloom

of blood formed in your cheek
and slowly seemed to melt,
I could almost speak
the love I almost felt.

Wish for something, you said.
A shiver pricked your spine.
The falcon turned its head
and locked its eyes on mine.

For a long moment then
I wished and wished and wished
the moment would not end.
And just like that it vanished.

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