Number 8
–Lawrence Ferlinghetti
from Pictures of the Gone World
It was a face which darkness could kill
in an instant
a face as easily hurt
by laughter or light
‘We think differently at night.’
she told me once
lying back languidly
And she would quote Cocteau
‘I feel there is an angel in me’ she’d say
‘whom I am constantly shocking’
Then she would smile and look away
light a cigarette for me
sigh and rise
and stretch
her sweet anatomy
let fall a stocking
