happy veeday
the soldier who guards the frontier
on the surface of the earth
despite all effort i continued
the life i had led in its depths.
so when you said cuckoo
hello and my heart
leapt up imagine my surprise.
from its depths some mouth
drawn by your refusals of love
fastened on them and fattened.
it's 2004; now the creature
born from our union in 1983
attains maturity.
he guards the frontier.
as he guards the frontier he listens
all day to the records of edith piaf.
heroic risk, piaf sings. love
is heroic risk, for what you are impelled
to risk but do not
kills you; as does, of course this voice
knows, risk. he is addicted
to the records of edith piaf.
he lives on the aroma, the intoxications
of what he has been spared.
he is grateful, he says, not to exist.
- frank bidart
on the surface of the earth
despite all effort i continued
the life i had led in its depths.
so when you said cuckoo
hello and my heart
leapt up imagine my surprise.
from its depths some mouth
drawn by your refusals of love
fastened on them and fattened.
it's 2004; now the creature
born from our union in 1983
attains maturity.
he guards the frontier.
as he guards the frontier he listens
all day to the records of edith piaf.
heroic risk, piaf sings. love
is heroic risk, for what you are impelled
to risk but do not
kills you; as does, of course this voice
knows, risk. he is addicted
to the records of edith piaf.
he lives on the aroma, the intoxications
of what he has been spared.
he is grateful, he says, not to exist.
- frank bidart