I want to understand the steep thing <br />that climbs ladders in your throat. <br />I can't make sense of you. <br />Everywhere I look you're there-- <br />a vast landmark, a volcano <br />poking its head through the clouds, <br />Gulliver sprawled across Lilliput. <br /> <br />I climb into your eyes, looking. <br />The pupils are black painted stage flats. <br />They can be pulled down like window shades. <br />I switch on a light in your iris. <br />Your brain ticks like a bomb. <br /> <br />In your offhand, mocking way <br />you've invited me into your chest. <br />Inside: the blur that poses as your heart. <br />I'm supposed to go in with a torch <br />or maybe hot water bottles <br />& defrost it by hand <br />as one defrosts an old refrigerator. <br />It will shudder & sigh <br />(the icebox to the insomniac). <br /> <br />Oh there's nothing like love between us. <br />You're the mountain, I am climbing you. <br />If I fall, you won't be all to blame, <br />but you'll wait years maybe <br />for the next doomed expedition.<br /><br />Erica Jong<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/climbing-you/
