Tarantula (Metasestina 2)
- Dominique Fitzpatrick-O~Dinn
Sometime before the beginning of love I
waited for patience, spending time When
I wanted to be saving money
Then one evening over a glass of water
I balanced my calendar to discover it was the end of youth
And love hadn’t even started yet, only this sestina
If it was no longer the beginning of this sestina
I would age from thirst if I started spending love
Gusting like the winds saving youth
Who, in the crow’s nest, with a spyglass of time
Scanned the horizon for the end of water
And ate the rest of its money
If it were the beginning of money
Would I drink empty bottles, poor, spending this sestina
With hope and utilities disconnected, saving water
Depressed, gazing into a cracked looking glass of love?
It would be just me, my lousy credit, and the end of time
So much for my chance to youth
If I had placed bets on the beginning of youth
When I wandered a casino of fountains spending money
On devices which guaranteed saving time
From sinking in the quicksand hourglass of this sestina
By the time rainclouds postponed the end of love
It would have been dead sand in the garden we water
If I pour from the clock the beginning of water
Hard rains will erase the dunes where we were spending youth
Working as life guards saving love
From drowning, bringing it around with a glass of money
But there would come the end of this sestina
And then we would have nothing to time
If, at the beginning of time
We wrung our wallets, spending water
And poured our ink out together saving this sestina
From walking barefoot across the shattered glass of youth
Maybe we wouldn’t so fear the end of money
Maybe then we could reuse return recycle or love
But, like a tarantula, time squashed youth
And poured water all over its burning money
And chose this sestina over love
1996