Thursday, May 15, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Rebecca
(On remembering Daphne du Maurier quite suddenly)
Maxim de Winter,
I need to ask you today
did Rebecca win again?
I cannot find the book,
but I must remember
and like a stranger’s
whetted curiosity,
I need to know
more about those
neatly filed letters
she signed with her
imposing slanting R.
So I crawl into every frame
I can recall from the
once-read book,
like a persistent shadow
you cannot sever.
Manderley
with its fumes
of unkempt gardens
had promised a new beginning.
And here, you said,
words seldom matter,
shapes do.
And I named the
shape I met on
a sudden afternoon
Rebecca.
Like a glove
the name fit.
Maxim, you ask me
To hold on,
like a child
tied to a kite
spread against the sky.
A human butterfly.
But soon, Manderley
was licked by flames,
burning down
all the assurances
ever made.
Maxim de Winter,
I need to ask you today,
didn’t Rebecca win again?