Lovers & Looking at one of Shelley's Mss
by Gill McEvoy
[ poetry - september 04 ]
Lovers
I am the girl who gets left
with a paperweight called "eternity"
from a man who loved me less than a day;
I am the girl left with the blue velvet scarf
that slithers round my neck like Cleopatra's asp;
I am the girl who is left with the stunning kimono embroidered with red butterflies,
as if I were the last Empress
or Madame Butterfly herself, scanning the harbour day and night for the lover
who does not come;
and I am the girl left, interestingly,
with umbrellas - oh, several of these -
as if to say that whereas love is fickle,
beyond our understanding,
rain, in England at any rate,
is a reliable constant.
Looking at one of Shelley's Mss
I see you crossed out words
as often as I do,
your writing hard to read
except by those you knew -
mine too.
Better still, you drew
trees round your manuscript:
I like that most in you.
