come lie down in Sappho— dress a little whiter & pres ent your wants—everything is a wet curtain everything is a wind blowing—pull the coun try open spread the night flat—stack paper further down the pave ment—every thing west is a platform another clock a set of widening walls present the west and every thing’s sexual—a country a clock an other curtain a spreading pavement—you can’t do it when every thing is so much further & mission time’s invading every hit— blowing paper get ting wet getting night—can’t think of anything that moves can’t think of any thing whiter can’t stack it all up can’t right every platform —everything sex ual’s always further west—everything blow ing down—dress with no walls no cur tain no night—nothing west of Sappho rain & you’re present in a country a time a stack ed invasion—you’re spread ing out pulling wants—getting wet getting whiter pull right out of everything —you see it blow ing you’re wet paper you’re a curtain flat & white—hit the lights in vade the present—undress the country night its hard rain its width & length in time— Sappho is want ing everything twice as west—you have the mission can’t think what we’re here for
Sarah Dowling
from Entering Sappho
Sarah Dowling is the author of DOWN (Coach House, 2014) and Security Posture (Snare, 2009), which received the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. Sarah’s third collection, Entering Sappho, is forthcoming from Coach House Books in 2020.