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Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Rosemary Tonks

 


Rosemary Tonks ‘evaporated into air like the Cheshire cat’



DRESSING-GOWN OLYMPIAN


I insist on vegetating here 
In motheaten granduer. Haven't I plotted 
Like a madman to get here? Well then. 


These free days, these side-streets, 
Mouldy or shiny, with their octoroon light: 
Also, I have grudges, enemies, a religion, 
Politics, a new morality - everything! 

Kept awake by alcohol and coffee, 
Inside her oriental dressing-gown of dust 
My soul is always thinking things over, thoroughly. 
No wonder my life has grandeur, depth, and crust. 


Ah, to desire a certain way of life, 
And then to gain it! 
What a mockery, what absolute misery,

Dressing-gown hours the tint of alcohol or coffee. 


Am I an imbecile of the first water after all? 
Yes, I think I can claim - now that all this grandeur, 
Depth, and crust is stacked around me - that I am.


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