Twilight

after Cesar Vallejo

I have dreamed of escape and I have dreamed
of your laces
scattered in the alcove

Along the dock some mother
and at fifteen giving her breast to the hour

I have dreamed of escape
a forever
longed for at the ladder of a prow

A handmaiden walking the planks
with a cut rose in her mouth

I have dreamed of escape
buried on the beach
like a bowsprit

A young one drinking wine
with a black knife in her hand

I have dreamed of a mother
some fresh greens in a newspaper
and the stars of dawn's trousseau

The length of a dock...
the length of a drowning throat

© Ginny Stanford