Screams I'd have given, ecstaticif I had looked with you, through you,these tattered waters, these stone chimeras;my childhood would've spurted through my skinlike scarlet fever,my thighs would've been stained with bloodas on the wedding night. Screams I'd have given, heretic,before this divinity thrown out of heavendown to our mortal earth- had I been with you, my holy love,enclosed together in this piece of sealike an eternal nutshell.
by Nina Cassian (b. 1924)
