Arts for the 21st Century

Let Us Call This Room “Enough”

This room should be called “enough” 

with its sound of arrival, its fixed white sheets

like a new beginning. I have left 

my shoes at the door with their dust 

of other things and places, I have hung 

the drooping shoulders of my coat. I have paid 

my dues in the underworld to the man singing 

love’s desperate songs, and the different languages

you hear in this city, sounding all like explanations 

for leaving where they came from. I will have 

to stare certain years in the face, Love, return

to places ravished of presences, so for now, 

let us lie down on your immaculate bed, 

let us breathe deeply, and let us call this room

“Enough”.