Quies, or Rest

A woman goes from room to room. She extinguishes
One light in each room. Darkness follows her
And in the last room she is overtaken.
Then, she mounts the dark stair confidently
And enters the room she sleeps in, and lies
Down in the dark, where a man in the dark wakes
A little and covers her with his arm.



"Quies, or Rest" from The Bright Nails Scattered on the Ground by Allen Grossman. Copyright © 1986. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.