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More poems by Li-Young LeeLi-Young Lee | Print this page.Print | Order a PoetryNotes Analysis of this poem.Analysis | View and Write CommentsComments

The Sacrifice

Li-Young Lee

We come to each other
exactly at the center,
the spine of ample fire, and suffer
to be revised.
Stay with me. 

Weren't we promised
the sheer flame, bright change
so clean even our clothes wouldn't smell of smoke,
not one hair of our heads would be singed?
Yet, just now, didn't the tongues slip
loose and hot about my neck?
Stay close now. 

The sound is like a rustling coming from chambers.
someone sifting through thousands
of pages, the histories of rapture,
looking for a happy ending.
The sound is like the sea,
which is very far away.
Are you scared? 

There are many things
which are far from us now.
Try to recall a few of them:
the iron in the bath water
that made you taste of rust.
The rabbit screaming in the night,
its innards strewn 

on the stoop like prophesy.
Can you hear me? Say something.
Tell me what you remember of our life.
The torn dress you threw away,
a piece of which I rescued and used as a scarf.
Are you still with me? Say something.
Does this hurt very much? Are you here? 

Added: 25 Feb 2002 | Last Read: 10 Jan 2009 4:19 AM | Viewed: 3964 times

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URL: http://plagiarist.com/poetry/2814/ | Viewed on 10 January 2009.
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