Poems

by Iris Tree

I

I crouched upon cushions and wallowed in their somnolent caresses,

And—listening with dread for the moment of my own silence

Rending the flimsy lace of whisperings—

My gnome dances before me

Behind a fan of smoke,

My dwarf squats on my shoulders

Tweeking their moulted wings,

My ape peers in the mirror of my face

Mimicking my soul's gaunt gestures—

My wolf bays through my moonly loneliness

Blotching the night with howls—

My laughter goes whining away on the wind,

Laughs that are whipped by a soul too sick with merriment,

Too satiate with humour's emptiness!...