"Impatience"

Click here to listen to Rachel Hadas read this poem.


Late in the month, late afternoon,
en route or waiting for the train,
spring barely peeking through mild rain:
what does this impatience mean?

Scarlet eruptions on the skin.
We're poised: when will the war begin?
I crane to hear the starting gun.
What does this impatience mean?

Wait for the other shoe to drop.
What now is green will soon be ripe;
what's ripening began as green,
so what does this impatience mean?

Is the best position for the hurt
of life in time to stay alert
or try to sleep to ease the strain,
the rash, the spring, the war, the rain,

oh what does this impatience mean?

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