The Yoke

Frank Bidart

 
don't worry     I know you're dead
but tonight
turn your face again
toward me
when I hear your voice there is now
no direction in which to turn
I sleep and wake and sleep and wake and sleep and wake and
but tonight
turn your face again
toward me
see     upon my shoulders is the yoke
that is not a yoke
don't worry          I know you're dead
but tonight
turn your face again
 
From Desire (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Copyright © 1997 by Frank Bidart. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Poems by This Author

An American in Hollywood by Frank Bidart
California Plush by Frank Bidart
The only thing I miss about Los Angeles
For the Twentieth Century by Frank Bidart
Bound, hungry to pluck again from the thousand
If See No End In Is by Frank Bidart
Love Incarnate by Frank Bidart
To all those driven berserk or humanized by love
Queer by Frank Bidart
Lie to yourself about this and you will
Song by Frank Bidart
You know that it is there, lair
The Old Man at the Wheel by Frank Bidart
To the Dead by Frank Bidart