Found Closed

because, where earth and heaven were obedient,
a solitary woman, just created,
found any veil at all beyond endurance

(Dante’s Purgatorio, Canto XXIX, tr. Mandelbaum)

I take back all the apples
their scent, the green of their leaves, what good it did
to see this

my ribs are broken
yours, replaced
with the tongue of a whale
with the twisted frame of a concrete edifice

and for this we grasp
we gasp
for this

I take back all the reaching
the summit we taught
flight

I take back the point at which we touched
and slid
I take back entry
and ambivalence

I despise this
(love cannot be taken, cannot be taken back)
so I take back having fallen
the scent, the green of leaves, what good
we knew of this

this shelter
this bridge