In Sleeping Beauty's castle
the clock strikes one hundred years
and the girl in the tower returns to the world.
So do the servants in the kitchen,
who don't even rub their eyes.
The cook's right hand, lifted
an exact century ago,
completes its downward arc
to the kitchen boy's left ear;
the boy's tensed vocal cords
finally let go
the trapped, enduring whimper,
and the fly, arrested mid-plunge
above the strawberry pie
fulfills its abiding mission
and dives into the sweet, red glaze.
As a child I had a book
with a picture of that scene.
I was too young to notice
how fear persists, and how
the anger that causes fear persists,
that its trajectory can't be changed
or broken, only interrupted.
My attention was on the fly:
that this slight body
with its transparent wings
and life-span of one human day
still craved its particular share
of sweetness, a century later.
Immortality
Lisel Mueller
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Poem topics: anger, beauty, child, girl, life, red, world, human, sweet, young, notice, tower, broken, attention, picture, clock, share, book, castle, body, Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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Write your comment about Immortality poem by Lisel Mueller
billrotecki: who owns the copyright?
how do I get permission to read this once on the radio ?
(there is no money involved)
frankly I think my reading it will increase awareness of lisel and might even increase sales of her books
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