Cocktails for Two

Louise Glück

Don’t listen to me; my heart’s been broken.
I don’t see anything objectively.

I know myself; I’ve learned to hear like a psychiatrist.
When I speak passionately,
that’s when I’m least to be trusted.

It’s very sad, really: all my life, I’ve been praised
for my intelligence, my powers of language, of insight.
In the end, they’re wasted—

I never see myself,
standing on the front steps, holding my sister’s hand.
That’s why I can’t account
for the bruises on her arm, where the sleeve ends.

In my own mind, I’m invisible: that’s why I’m dangerous.
People like me, who seem selfless,
we’re the cripples, the liars;
we’re the ones who should be factored out
in the interest of truth.

When I’m quiet, that’s when the truth emerges.
A clear sky, the clouds like white fibers.
Underneath, a little gray house, the azaleas
red and bright pink.

If you want the truth, you have to close yourself
to the older daughter, block her out:
when a living thing is hurt like that,
in its deepest workings,
all function is altered.

That’s why I’m not to be trusted.
Because a wound to the heart
is also a wound to the mind.

(Source: readalittlepoetry.wordpress.com)

Vera Pavlova

9

I broke your heart.
Now barefoot I tread
on shards.

17

Why is the word yes so brief?
It should be
the longest,
the hardest,
so that you could not decide in an instant to say it,
so that upon reflection you could stop
in the middle of saying it.

(Source: readalittlepoetry.wordpress.com)

I hope scapegoating large faceless institutions for nebulous problems like “war”, “unemployment”, and “crisis” satisfies them, because it’s unlikely to do anything else. Protesting banks because life didn’t turn out how they thought it should is not only proof they’re not ready for democracy, it’s proof they’re part of the problem. The only thing standing between the American public and its prosperity is an inability to reconcile the level of freedom desired with the responsibility that comes with it. Complaining and feeling sorry for oneself has not been, is not, and will never be a road to progress or prosperity. Change isn’t something you demand, it’s something you create. So, my suggestion to protesters is, either accept reality or start changing it—there is no third option.