When the Switch that Time Corrodes
When the switch that time corrodesclicks hard against the willand a flash-back bulb explodesA long-forgotten cell,
flesh that died two decades backreactivates its pain;in the room my mind kept blacklight breaks the heart again
to show through gathering dustthat thick on the image liesthe face of my ruined lust,the hell in her tortured eyes.
From Descent from Eden. Reprinted with permission of Kathleen Forsythe, Cogswell's literary executor. Back to Selected Poems