3. So I Leave Nothing With You, My Beloved

No Hair of my head
No book on the shelf
No bra on the floor
No stockings.
                     No pen on the table
                     Not a button from my blouse,
                     No toothbrush
                     No flannel
                     No towel
                     damp in a heap,  No
Night dress, not
A lipstick
An eyeliner
No face cream  No

the was no breath of me,
Not a tissue
Not a mark
Not a comb
Not an earring
No car keys
No map
No - not a footprint,a 
wheelprint?  Can you see it?
There in the shadows, in
The gravel             
                   I dropped nothing
                   I left nothing
                   Not a wave in the air

But beloved
press close in the sheets
where my body lay there
where my skin sank there
where my flesh warmed there,
that dip there,
that ruckle there,
                   breath, deepdeep, did I
                   leave scent of me ? 

© Anne Le Marquand Hartigan

Immortal Sins
by
Anne Le Marquand Hartigan
Salmon Irish poetry publishers
ISBN: 1 897648 17 0

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