MOST LIKE AN ARCH THIS MARRIAGE

John Ciardi

Read by Moses Kent Borinaga

 

Most like an arch – an entrance which upholds

And shores the stone-crush up the air like lace.

Mass made idea, and idea held in place.

A lock in time. Inside half-heaven unfolds.

 

Most like an arch – two weaknesses that lean

Into a strength. Two fallings become firm.

Two joined abeyances become a term

Naming the fact that teaches the fact to mean.

 

Not quite that? Not much less. World as it is,

What’s strong and separate falters. All I do

At piling stone on stone apart from you

Is roofless around nothing. Till we kiss

 

I am no more than upright and unset.

It is by falling in and in we make

The all-bearing point for one another’s sake,

In faultless failing, raised by our own weight.

 

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