Never to Dream of Spiders by Audre Lorde
in the breathless precision of silence one word is made.
Never to Dream of Spiders
by Audre Lorde 1
Time collapses between the lips of strangers my days collapse into a hollow tube soon implodes against now like an iron wall my eyes are blocked with rubble a smear of perspectives blurring each horizon in the breathless precision of silence one word is made. Once the renegade flesh was gone fall air lay against my face sharp and blue as a needle but the rain fell through October and death lay a condemnation within my blood. The smell of your neck in August a fine gold wire bejeweling war all the rest lies illusive as a farmhouse on the other side of a valley vanishing in the afternoon. Day three day four day ten the seventh step a veiled door leading to my golden anniversary flameproofed free-paper shredded in the teeth of a pillaging dog never to dream of spiders and when they turned the hoses upon me a burst of light.
1
Source: Poetry Foundation from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 1997)
Copyright Credit: Audre Lorde, “Never to Dream of Spiders” from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde. Copyright © 1997 by Audre Lorde.
soon implodes against now