Poem

Why do I want to tell it
it was the afternoon of November
15th last fall and I was waiting
for it whatever it would be like

it was afternoon & raining but it
was late afternoon so dark outside my
apartment and I was special in that
I saw everything through a heightened

tear, things seemed dewy, shiny
and so I knew there was a cave
it was more or less nearby as in my
apartment it was blue inside it

dark blue like an azure twilight and the
gods lived in the cave they who
care for you take care of at death and
they had cared for Ted and were there for me
         too and in life even now

This poem was written on March 5, 1984. From Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems 1970-2005 (Wesleyan University Press, 2008). Copyright © 2008 by Alice Notley and reprinted with permission of Wesleyan University press.