Each Happiness Ringed by Lions

 

Sometimes when
I take you into my body
I can almost see them – patient, circling.
Almost glimpse the moving shadow of the tail,
almost hear the hushed pad of retracted claws.
It is the moment – of this I am certain –
when they themselves are least sure.
It is the moment they could almost let us go free.

from Each Happiness Ringed by Lions (Bloodaxe, 2005) © Jane Hirshfield 2005, used by permission of the author and Bloodaxe Books.

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