WEBVTT

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This next poem is
spoken by a woman.

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And the scene is late at
night, and her husband

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asleep next to her, and
she's nursing her infant.

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And this is her meditation,
"Nursing at Night."

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"The moon is full,
my breasts are full.

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Everyone desires them,
they are for everyone.

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Waking, I save
them for his mouth

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that curls like yours,
learning to smile your smile.

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And can you see, asleep,
that very smile upon my lips

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is nursing?

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I lie here in the stay of light,
my chill toes touching yours,

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saving your face
for an empty time.

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You think I am yours because
he smiles your smile.

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That cleft, he has
my father's chin.

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And his ears, you will never
know whom they remind me of.

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Though you dream his
eyes into my head,

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I must save
something for myself.

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As chilled, I touch your
toes and nurse our son

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in the stuffed room,
emptying my breasts.

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He will leave me.

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And you will leave me when
you wake, smiling your smile,

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dreaming of ears that
are not shaped like mine.

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Where can I go?

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Have you understood
the chill of the moon,

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curdled milk in a
cat's bowl, a blood

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spot in the yolk of an egg?

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Can you hear me dream?

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You place your hand in
my free full breast.

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Are you awake?

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See, I have come back.

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I am here.

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My breasts are for you.

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I pray that he may
learn your smile

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for an empty time in the dusty
moon with my father's cleft,

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waking to strange ears, dreaming
your smile is mine until it is,

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nursing his dream at
someone else's breasts.

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Full, full, my milk flows.

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Everyone in turn
nurses at my breasts.

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I save them for you.

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They are mine."

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