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La Faim
The pain and the joy
Caught in your forever face
Go unnoticed to the child
Suckling your chest.
What sensations do the lips
On your nipple conjure?
Does it remind you of labor,
Of losing something
Within your body? What
Does the child
Take from you?
I visited England on an organized trip in the winter of 1999, and we took a boat to spend an afternoon in Calais, France. Just in case we never made it back, we could say we went to France once. I’m not an art guy, but I like museums even if I rarely go to them. You browse around, see what you’re supposed to see, and move on. Every now and then, though, a piece jumps out at you, and La Faim did. This poem came shortly after that. It’s hard to walk in someone else’s shoes, but art can let you, briefly.
