What if we got outside ourselves and there
really was an outside out there, not just
our insides turned inside out? , not just
the waves off my own fire, like those waves off
the backyard grill you can see the next yard through,
though not well — just enough to know that off
to the right belongs to someone else, not you.
What if, when we said I love you, there were
a you to love as there is a yard beyond
to walk past the grill and get to? To endure
the endless walk through the self, knowing through a bond
that has no basis (for ourselves are all we know)
is altruism: not giving, but coming to know
someone is there through the wavy vision
of the self’s heat, love become a decision.
Text: Altruism, by Molly Peacock,
from Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems 1975-2002.
from Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems 1975-2002.
Image: Photographer, subjects, unknown.
Image used with permission by dcwooten/flickr
Image used with permission by dcwooten/flickr
Tagged: Molly Peacock, vintage
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One Comment
Just wonderful. And I particularly like these lines: ‘What if we got outside ourselves and there/
really was an outside out there, not just/our insides turned inside out’.