Verse:
Nobles, Edward
Edward Nobles Heart Ear To half hear is to be without direction. Everything moves toward you from the right. Even a lover's kiss, on the earlobe of the left, is felt, but slightly; the alluring...
...It flutters there, in the rain, intent on entry, but it can not knock...
...Is it the mystery, or the mistrust, that the left ear fails to hear...
...Or so it seemed, as I held my head against the pillow and cringed inward...
...Dead now, it treasures more the subtle world of night...
...A child of five, fevered with measles, my heart-ear bled and bottled-up with wax...
...It is then the past crawls all the way around the rim of years, to tap lightly, like a spider, against the senseless drum.senseless drum...
...the alluring breath streams around the head and enters at the other end of night: a spirit's touch against the window...
...One night, the ear's shrieking burnt a hole into the sheet...
...the aching entered and endured...
...Sometimes, the good ear's insight is so perfect I can't bear my present life...
...The pain was fierce and good for nothing but my mother's worried eye which was worth a lot in a house of seven peers...
Vol. 115 • April 1988 • No. 8
