Ideas, by Kathryn Starbuck

Giacomo Puccini - "Nessun dorma," Turandot with Mario del Monaco

I was the lonely one in whom
they swarmed in the millions.
I was their creature and I
was grateful. I could sleep
when I wanted.

I lived a divided
existence in sleepdreams
that lit up a silence as dreadful
as that of the moon. I have
an overly-precise recall of

those solitary years before
I opened the curtain and drew
upon a universe of want that made
me so strong I could crack
spines of books with one hand.


From Poetry (Poetry Foundation), March 2009, Volume cxciii, Number 6, page 517