IF YOU TOLD ME WHAT I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT HAVE,

I WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU THIS

We make unfair, called up adjustments,

Coddled by such consolations

As a day can discard upon request

In hidden, puckered places.

But we

can still love the world, and find

A famished friend, hungry for understanding,

And know a refuge for her from the fury of herself And give it time and trust to place it well.

The game we play demands its lies,

But we have seen the lonely alleys in the day And fled the shapeful shadows in the night. We've known a wilderness of fear and truth.

We will sidestep and to the very end Bring that which we have brought about Into an innocen@e, inevitable, demanding, And these consequences will not be lies.

There is no sun today; no stars tonight But those of remembrance.

A multitude of memory stays

In this grail of forgetfulness.

Helen Sanders

AWARENESS

There was a time when this would be enough,

Your laugh, a glance

these would be food for hours

Of dreaming. Might-have-been stuff

I lived on, pale sustenance, like paper flowers

Compared to true ones.

But since last night

Dreams cannot satisfy. I have a deeper need And I must know your wish

and hold you tight

Against my pounding heart and from your lips to feed.

22

Jo Allyn