Amazing Sleeplessness
“From that height, he gazes / not only on geographies / but histories that have come and gone.”
SEPTEMBER 12, 2023
In darkness I lie.
It’s not that
my mind’s
still working.
No, it’s
soaring with thoughts,
gone off like
Superman
diving up
to the remotest bit of sky.
Lonelier than motorway
or by-lane are the spaces
Superman roams,
eyes cast
on the planet
in its entirety.
From that height, he gazes
not only on geographies
but histories that have come and gone,
then plummets
to my window –
he has suddenly
thought of me
alone below: he hovers
wide-eyed, shy;
with his cape
envelopes my gratitude.
I’ve rushed to him – ‘Lois,’
he murmurs – I can’t
subsist without him, then
he lifts me, springs
miles up,
restive until
he’s shown me
all of the universe.
I’m secure
in his arms
for the time
we hang in nothingness.
My body lies outstretched
– a drunk on a pavement –
about to pass out but transfixed
by Superman and me. Neither
he nor I notice it.
The more we range
above the world
with untrammelled ease
the more exhausted it becomes.
Originally published in Sweet Shop: New and Selected Poems, 1985 – 2023, NYRB Poets Series, October 2023.
✺ Published in “Issue 8: Drugs” of The Dial.
