Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Bernice Chauly

G Minor

G Minor

G Minor

If we do not love each other
how come the thought of you dissolves me, like sorrow?
like the world being poured back into a dead lake
bereft yet congenial
 
Perhaps love is a burden, devoid of simplicity
perhaps you would have been bored by happiness
you would have found it dull
 
Is your home in St. Gilles
I imagine an etymologist’s study
the stag beetle I gave you, placed on a promontory
facing a wall of books, other framed dead beetles
 
I need to write you out of me
like a diminishing carapace of dots and lines
 
And after a few sips of whiskey
I no longer think of you.
Close

G Minor

If we do not love each other
how come the thought of you dissolves me, like sorrow?
like the world being poured back into a dead lake
bereft yet congenial
 
Perhaps love is a burden, devoid of simplicity
perhaps you would have been bored by happiness
you would have found it dull
 
Is your home in St. Gilles
I imagine an etymologist’s study
the stag beetle I gave you, placed on a promontory
facing a wall of books, other framed dead beetles
 
I need to write you out of me
like a diminishing carapace of dots and lines
 
And after a few sips of whiskey
I no longer think of you.

G Minor

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