Duet for Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity and St. Louis #2
03/22/83 version
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Man I heard that you might be leaving
Woman There’s no oceans here. No rivers.
Man You knew that.
Woman I knew of it. What seemed so precious, like shimmering me tals
is only a stone, rough in hue, of no particular edge.
Man I thought we had a pledge-
Woman We had a certain time to spend.
Mine has woven; Now it ends.
Don’t you get tired of the wall. It’s always the same.
Man It’s mutable; you just don’t see it. As you.
As you don’t see me seeing you. I still have strands-
Woman And so it stands.
You have not let the full of me leave you.
I must de part
By parts
Man But if you leave me, to sail to other shores-
Woman Nothing less, a piecemeal more.
You’ll a ha pence better be
not a tup pence worse
with your beef and city side walk verse
Man I thought you liked me being lyrical
Woman Not at breakfast, dear. Over Jams and Jellies.
Man I thought I was your Lochin var. Your errant knight-
Woman Most of one’s nights are spent in errors
in someone else’s errors
in someone else’s mirrors
Man But I saved you from-
Woman Are we Japanese now. I owe my life to you so I owe you
all the nights of my life. You were very fine when you
were. It’s no longer your time.
Man They don’t make maidens like they used to.
Are you then a Sailorette?
Woman I have seen the De La Ware, with it’s murky waters,
uncombed bound bodies, and dead fish. I have seen the
streets till they stifle my wings. I would not die here.
Not where trollies reign supreme, where one expires from
slow ero sion, hac ked and torn, till the age sets in.
I have places.
Man I’ve never been to St. Louis.
Woman Go then there. I’ll meet you by the Arch.
4’o clock on a Saturday, in a January.
If I’m not there, join the waters without me.
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Off the bottom of my head-3-22-83
robertthesmall 