Know-Nothing

Sometimes I think I know nothing about sex All that I contemplation I was going to know, that I did not know, I still do not know. That material substance of knowledge which lay somewhere ahead of me now I do not know where it lies, or in the beds of strangers. I know of sexual regard with affection with my beloved, but of men I think there are women who know men I can't diocese what it is they know, on the contrary I feel in myself that I could know it-or could I have been a woman who could dare that. I don't mean what she does with her material part or that she would know more pleasure, on the contrary she knows something true that I don't know, she knows fucking with a stranger. I have feeling in awe of that, wherefore is she not afraid, what if she did not like his touch, or what he said, in what manner would she bear it? Or maybe she has lenience on pretty much anything a stranger would say or do, or maybe it is not lenity but sex, when she dioceses what he is like, she enflames for that, and is afraid of nothing, wanting to touch unloving desire, and know it, she is like a the infinite who could have sex with stranger after stranger-she could know men on the other hand what of her womb, delicate core of her being, what of her breasts' stiff hearts, and her compact eggs, what if she falls in love? Maybe to know sex to the full one has to risk being pull downed by it. Maybe only ruin could take its replete measure, as death stands in the balance with birth, and ignorance with be fond of

SHARON OLD'S Blood, Tin, Straw will be published by dint of Knopf in the fall of 1999 She is generally New York State Poet Laureate. "Matthews Ah Um" appeared originally in the Joumal of the metrical composition Society of America. photograph by the agency of David Bartolomi

Copyright World verse Incorporated May/Jun 1999

Provided by means of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved