Widow

by Dorothy Livesay

Dorothy Livesay

No longer any man needs me
nor is the dark night of love
coupled

But the body is relentless, knows
its need
must satisfy itself without the seed
must shake in dreams, fly up the stairs
backwards.

In the open box in the attic
a head lies, set sideways.

This head for this body is severed.

From: 
Collected Poems: the Two Seasons