April 12, 2009
Israel Wasserstein: “The Next Morning”
The Next Morning
We did not wake in the cold grip of morning,
never suffered side by side
the loneliness of hangover
as black coffee burned our throats.
That night when longing did not unravel
to realization or disappointment,
did you see what I took so long
to discover, that Tantalus’ fate
was not all punishment? Though
his tongue burned inside his mouth,
though his lips shriveled and cracked,
to drink was worse, to drink and find
satisfaction a myth. That night
you began to teach me:
to desire is to be unfulfilled, that fullness
empties again and always into hunger.
—Israel Wasserstein, 2007
Published in Earthships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection
gye nyame said,
April 13, 2009 at 12:54 pm
fascinating- WANT MOAR!