lullaby
TRANSCRIPT
LullabyAuthor(s): Constance MerrittSource: Callaloo, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring, 1993), p. 324Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2931944 .
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LULLABY
By Constance Merritt
Say to me: out there are only streets, and cars Are only cars, and childhood lessons of Both ways will never fail you now. I'd listen Even if you whispered, strain my ears to hear The way I silence other voices. Random ones. I told you of the child. How when she slept in her crib I could hear Her crying everywhere-in noises the House made, in heat and running water, even Inside the breath of early morning, My breath, the crying of this child not even Mine, and she so peacefully asleep.
I can shut my lids on angels, bite my tongue, Withhold my breath, swallow unbidden words Before they form. But how to stop my ears? I can't resist the charm that distance holds: The silence of a street minutes before I cross into the constant flow of traffic, Or sobs that I hear buried in the laughter Of a girl that make me wait above my book In terror. As if she had no friends, had need Of my concern. What is this love I'd heap Upon the world like blankets unasked for? And by what right do I stand eavesdropping here?
Callaloo 16.2 (1993) 324
This content downloaded from 188.72.126.181 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 04:33:48 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions