Daniel Schwarz
“You’re interrupting
my radio,” she said,
as I fell into my easy
chair, turned on TV,
seeking respite
from noise in images.
Divorce: Ours
more like slow
tearing of limb
than surgical amputation,
more drifting
apart than cataclysm.
Was it ever
passionate attraction
that tightens chest,
magnetizes eyes? Rather,
more moving
together gradually
to soothe needs, as if
burying head under
comforter on blustery
dark December night
awaiting dawn’s
inevitability.
Daniel R. Schwarz is Frederic J. Whiton Professor of English Literature and the Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell University. He is the author of numerous books and has published poems in journals throughout the world.