Poem: A Lover's Recourse (dependency)
dépendance / dependency
It is not true that what ascends a flight of stairs
must reach a branch of stars. We too descend by stairs.
I was so wrong to think that lovers will make equals.
A step is higher—or else, lower—on the stairs.
Eager to bring you home, I thought only of bed.
When you left me unsatisfied, I thought of stairs.
You leave me in a dark hallway smelling of shoes.
Does a kiss make a step? Two kisses make a stairs?
Last night I had sex with a white man and a black.
We kept switching places and rolled down the stairs.
I’d rather walk a length of town than take a bus.
Do you prefer the elevator to the stairs?
Your voice answers from up there, faint and powerful:
Don’t be scared, Jee, my runaway. Come up the stairs.
It is not true that what ascends a flight of stairs
must reach a branch of stars. We too descend by stairs.
I was so wrong to think that lovers will make equals.
A step is higher—or else, lower—on the stairs.
Eager to bring you home, I thought only of bed.
When you left me unsatisfied, I thought of stairs.
You leave me in a dark hallway smelling of shoes.
Does a kiss make a step? Two kisses make a stairs?
Last night I had sex with a white man and a black.
We kept switching places and rolled down the stairs.
I’d rather walk a length of town than take a bus.
Do you prefer the elevator to the stairs?
Your voice answers from up there, faint and powerful:
Don’t be scared, Jee, my runaway. Come up the stairs.
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