The Power Of Love

Rosemary Daniell

"I love them as poets love the poetry that kills them, as the drowned sailors love the sea."
      -- Derek Walcott

The boy is clawing his burning sister
from the burning sports car (a Triumph    I think) --
she's stuck & he's shouting    I love you!
& she's shouting it back    & they're both screaming.
But the power of love can't save her --
he socks the cop who drags him away.
And for the rest of his life he lives
with that guilt: as a young man lying
on beaches    in strange beds    as a father
looking into the face of his baby daughter
at thirty    slurring to the barkeep
"another double"    pouring into his flesh
what he dreams will put out memory.
"Oh    stop blubbering"    the woman with him
sulls    not caring about how he failed    how
if he had been a real   man    (& doesn't
he know people don't want to hear   about that!?)....
Still    on his death bed at fifty    the slime
of cancer filling his lungs    his last vision
as drowning    drowning    he goes under is
his sister going up in flames    & what
he hears are her screams:    I love you! I love you!
& they're both crying & screaming
of how the power of love can't save her
of how the power of love can't save him....
This is what the boy hears on his death bed
& I think how the power of my love can't save
you or anyone    of how    no matter
how hard I tug    I can't pull you from the blaze
of madness    of drugs    of disease.    & how
like that boy    his sister    you too will reach
out your arms    you too will pull me close
to the flames    screaming    I love you! I love you!
How I too will die hearing your cries.