Immortality by Lisel Mueller

Today is the last day of April, and the last day of National Poetry Month. I posted a poem each day this month, and had a wonderful time searching out new poems, new poets, and remembering poems I've loved.  There are so many more fantastic poems than the 30 I've posted this month.  I'm having a hard time deciding if I should post throughout the day today, or wait until next year again.  


If you've been reading along this month, I hope you've enjoyed the poems.  If you would like to see all the poems posted on this blog, click here. 

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 lifespan of one human day
still craved its particular share
of sweetness, a century later.