Give me just this ...

I've blipped this one before, but I *really do* like this Frank Redpath poem, which is taken from his pictured 1986 collection ... it uses the everyday act, in all its 'perceived' banality, to so powerfully portray the positive force of love:


LYRIC

Something is happening that never, ever,
Happened to anyone before, he thought.
This is the moment when the sudden river
Breaks through the rocks to flow and end the drought.
Sitting straight-backed upon the bedside chair,
She took pins from her lips and fixed her hair.

Give me just this, he thought, let me for ever
Be sitting here with this, without a thought.
Ice ages come to freeze the flowing river,
Still ponds surround us both to cool the drought.
Taking each eye in turn, she painted it
Using a brush, a block of black, and spit.

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Frank Redpath (1927 - 1990)

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