Issue 14, December 1997
Perry Thompson - Two Poems

The world dearly loves cages
and so does she who loves

freedom like a silk
garment on the shoulders.

He's seen the charming and quiet
captives in the aviary

look past his face and blink
at the noon-day sun.

When she chooses to have the silk
fall from her arms like wild 

geese in flight,
he stands in the cage

their wings have made.
The world dearly loves cages

and so does she who loves
freedom like a feather

come loose from a homeward
traveler and falling to earth. 

he is no longer your house 
who used to lie beside you
like the moon on october trees

he stallioned your days with
watersilk hands and put his
 muscles to work in your love

but he's gone now
even though he sits in your
parlor autumnal and golden

now he stays up late at night
with his bearded blues and
squeaks the rocking chair and
fogs  the windows with his waiting

and if one morning (not this morning)
should deliver even a fragment
of his longings
then he will pant with the
geese and buttoning his overcoat
float like a wing into miracles