You sleep in the darkness, <br />you with the back I love <br />& the gift of sleeping <br />through my noisy nights of poetry. <br /> <br />I have taken other men into my thoughts <br />since I met you. <br />I have loved parts of them. <br />But only you sleep on through the darkness <br />like a mountain where my house is planted, <br />like a rock on which my temple stands, <br />like a great dictionary holding every word- <br />even some <br />I have never spoken. <br /> <br />You breathe. <br />The pages of your dreams are riffled <br />by the winds of my writing. <br />The pillow creases your cheek <br />as I cover pages. <br /> <br />Element in which I swim <br />or fly, <br />silent muse, backbone, companion- <br />it is unfashionable <br />to confess to marriage- <br />yet I feel no bondage <br />in this air we share.<br /><br />Erica Jong<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/for-my-husband-2/
