Consent

Perhaps everyone is still asleep and you,

Leaning at the window, watch the violet

Shadows thinning on the streets. You'd like

To say that snow clarifies the blood

Of that child huddled in a doorway. Today,

During this siege it has come to cover him.

His feet and trousers appearing in the spring.

Someone drunk creeps up the stairs and knows

A stranger's here. Too old for words, he falls

Asleep behind the wall and we

Are safe today while I keep twirling in this blue

Silk robe. The huge white flowers stained now

With tea and chocolate; and I can taste

How I won't leave you. Completely. Remembering

That last year everything

Was as simple as the cruelty of a boy in summer,

Who knows the only bait for eels is the

Unfledged young of hedgerow birds and steals

Them for his night-lines. Always in the morning

Finding

Some accomplice to take him to the river.