Living In Sin

A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)

She had thought the studio would keep itself;

no dust upon the furniture of love.

Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal,

the panes relieved of grime. A plate of pears,

a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat

stalking the picturesque amusing mouse

had risen at his urging.

Not that at five each separate stair would writhe

under the milkman’s tramp; that morning light

so coldly would delineate the scraps

of last night’s cheese and three sepulchral bottles;

that on the kitchen shelf amoong the saucers

a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own–

envoy from some village in the moldings…

Meanwhile, he, with a yawn,

sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard,

declared it out of tune, shrugged at the mirror,

rubbed at his beard, went out for cigarettes;

while she, jeered by the minor demons,

pulled back the sheets and made the bed and found

a towel to dust the table-top,

and let the coffee-pot boil over on the stove.

By evening she was back in love again,

though not so wholly but throughout the night

she woke sometimes to feel the daylight coming

like a relentless milkman up the stairs.

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• The Rabbi’s Song by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
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• The Prayer of Miriam Cohen by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Law of the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
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• The Last of the Light Brigade by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
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• The Land by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Lament of the Border Cattle Thief by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
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• The Kingdom by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
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